Stranger in a Strange World
by MeatBomb
Summary: Tsukune Aono: not human, but not a monster, either. Does he pretend to be human? Pretend to be a monster pretending to be human, pretending to be a monster? What? - Final chapter is now up. That's a wrap!
1. Strange Prologue

Disclaimer: I own nothing, except the desire to entertain myself and others using other people's characters.

A/N: It's official: I'm a moron. I now have three writing projects under way. I should be finishing one, then starting the next, but noooooo; I have to fling discipline into the wind, and work on what my muse (the heartless, evil, fickle b**ch) staples into my mind on any given day.

Stranger In A Strange World

Strange Prologue

Tsukune Aono gazed morosely out the window of the small school bus carrying him to his new school, and in all likelihood, a new life. He was initially excited and anticipating his immersion into high school life, but trepidation and homesickness accompanied the realization that he would not see any of his friends or family until after graduation in three years. _Three years_, he thought sadly, as he remembered his last evening at home...

_Tsukune's mother looked in disappointment at his final report card, surveying the neatly printed column of 70s. "I know you want to try to fit in with average people, but must you be _so_ successful at it? I'm beginning to wonder if your disguise as one of these feeble humans has penetrated through to your brain function."_

"_Aww, mom, what was I supposed to do? Ace every course? Become a child prodigy? Do you have any idea how _hard_ it was not to burst out laughing during Science classes?" Tsukune rolled his eyes in an all-too-typical human teenager fashion as he spoke._

"_Of course not, son, but would it have killed you to get at least _one_ above average score? Do you know how difficult it's going to be to get you placed in a decent high school? The controlled environment of a private academy is out of the question, now." She looked at him nervously. "Are you sure you're ready for immersion in a public, mixed gender human school?"_

"_Whether he's ready or not is now irrelevant." His father joined the conversation, having just returned from work, and waved a packet of papers at them. "By a stroke of luck, Tsu-kun is now officially enrolled as a student at Youkai Academy."_

"_But…how?" his mother looked at her husband in surprise._

"_It's a co-ed private academy; distant and exclusive, apparently. He'll have to live there until graduation as a requirement of attendance," his father said. "And don't ask," he added with a cryptic look at his wife._

_His mother looked resigned. "I would have preferred you continue to attend all-boys schools until you were better acclimatized to human culture, but at least it's a somewhat controlled environment."_

"_Mom, I'm so ready for this! Don't worry! I've been living as a human boy for ten years now!" Tsukune made no effort to conceal his enthusiasm. "I'm going to go to school with human girls!" he cheered, making a "V" with his fingers and thrusting his other hand, balled in a fist, into the air._

_The next day, watching the Academy's bus approach the designated stop, Tsukune said his good-byes to his parents. Hugging him tightly, his mother sniffled, "Be careful. You know how intolerant these humans can be."_

_Hugging her back, and kissing her on the cheek, Tsukune smiled and said, "Don't worry! I think I can hold my own among a bunch of high-schoolers!"_

_His father grasped him by the shoulders, looking directly into his eyes. "Don't be careless. Remember son, you're an average teenage human boy, so stay in character!"_

As they entered a tunnel, effectively rendering the view out the window distinctly uninteresting, Tsukune returned his gaze to the creepy bus driver. _How hard can it be?_ he asked himself. _Pretend to be human for three years? Ha! I've got ten years of practice at that!_

Stepping off the bus, Tsukune heard the bus driver mutter something to his back, but paid no attention. The world had changed. The sky was definitely a different shade of blue, or whatever, and he was looking over a cliff at an ocean that could only be described as red. The sign for the bus stop was a black-caped scarecrow with a jack-o-lantern perched on its shoulders in place of a head. No living vegetation was evident, only gnarled and bare trees lining a path that, presumably, led to the Gothic style building in the distance. Headstones littered the verge of the path, completing the sinister landscape._ Humans are weird_, he thought as he surveyed the area, reciting a personal inner mantra that helped him to take the oddball, unsophisticated, and downright puzzling human way of life in stride.

Tsukune shrugged his shoulders, and picked up his bags to start down the path. He was about halfway to the academy when the hairs on his neck prickled up, and he felt someone or _something_ approach. The curious, sociable side of him would have stayed put to meet up with whoever it was that he sensed, but his curiosity found itself bound, gagged and stuffed into a mental closet by his discretion and unfamiliarity with the psychic energy he was detecting. Taking a few quick steps off the path and standing behind a tree, Tsukune closed his eyes and concentrated on the aura whose source was closing fast on his position. He knew he was pretty good at sensing people's auras and energy, but what he detected now left him stumped. He was certain, at least, that he was detecting a human female, but the weakness of the aura and its unfamiliar nature didn't match up. As the proximity of the energy peaked and started to recede, he realized in horror just how badly he misjudged the aura. The weakness he had detected was only due to the fact that it was unintentional leakage. Whoever this girl was, she was carrying around a staggering reservoir of barely-contained, insanely potent psychic energy. _This girl, I've _got_ to meet_, he thought to himself as his curious nature freed itself. _But carefully_, his thoughts continued, _very politely, and very carefully. _Opening his eyes and stepping back out to the path, he saw the receding form of girl on a bicycle, wearing a green jacket identical to his own, and a long flowing mane of pink hair. _Maybe I'll meet her in class_, he mused, as he resumed his trek to the decrepit gray building in the distance.

As the standard-issue Tsukune Aono luck would have it, he was late for home room class. Walking up to the open door of classroom 1-3, he knocked tentatively on the frame. The teacher was cleaning some writing off the chalkboard, and made one last swipe of the eraser before looking in her register. "Tsukune Aono?" she asked.

Tsukune simply nodded nervously, nonplussed by the distinctly feline appearance of his new homeroom teacher. _Did her hair just _move_?_ Apparently not noticing his stare, she continued, "I'm the class 1-3 homeroom teacher, Shiziku Nekonome. Take your seat at the first available desk in the last row, please." As he started to walk to his desk, she went on, "We just went over a brief orientation. You can get filled in by one of your classmates after the lesson."

Again, Tsukune just nodded as he walked. Auras and strange energies swirled around the classroom, coming from the students and teacher alike. They were as varied and diverse as any he'd seen, and almost without exception, insanely powerful for human auras. There was definitely something special about the humans at this school, and he found himself wondering with amusement if he'd accidentally been admitted to some secretive, special school for "gifted" humans. As he neared his desk, all thoughts of auras and energies evaporated when he recognized the occupant of the desk behind his. The long, silky pink hair was unmistakable, and now complemented by large, emerald eyes, the entire package was nothing short of breathtaking. _Oh yes_, he mused, _this is going to be a good year, even if she _is_ the psychic equivalent of a nuclear warhead._

Finally seated at his desk, pondering his new situation, Tsukune felt a light tap in the middle of his back. Surreptitiously leaning back and tilting his head, he heard the girl whisper, "Moka Akashiya".

"Tsukune Aono," he replied in his own hushed voice, not believing his luck. _The first human female classmate I meet_, he thought, _and not only is she the absolute cutest in the class, she's also…wait a minute…is she smelling me?_

Sure enough, Moka was leaning far forward in her seat, inhaling deeply, and exhaling in soft sighs. It was obvious she was enjoying the scent of him, even from at least a meter away. His shoulders slumped slightly as he returned his attention to Miss Nekonome's lesson.

_Humans are so weird…_

Continued…

A/N: This will be an ongoing story with, I hope, a twist you haven't seen in this fandom before. If there's any one who'd like to beta this fic for characterization and plot, let me know. I'm new to R+V, and basing this solely on the anime. For the poor bas***d/lucky individual who volunteers to beta, I will fill you in on the whole Aono family backstory and path forward for this fic. Reviews/flames/obscene propositions always welcome!


	2. Strange Vampire

Disclaimer: I own nothing, except the desire to entertain myself and others using other people's characters.

A/N: Thanks to all who are reading! I'm surprised by the response to this story, to be sure. Anyway, without further ado...

* * *

Stranger In A Strange World  
Strange Vampire

Tsukune hurried from the classroom as soon as the bell chimed. The longer he spent in the company of these students, the more his uneasiness and tension grew. Not only were the energies in the air giving him a terrible headache, it was as if he was the only one not in on some colossal inside joke. Some of the comments made by the students and the teacher were just plain _weird_, even for humans. The sooner he had some time alone, the better. Not even the lure of the beautiful and friendly Moka could slow his steps. Finally outside the building, and walking along a columned path towards a vending machine, he breathed a sigh of relief, just in time to feel a familiar tingle at the base of his skull.

"Tsukune!" Moka's voice carried to his ears.

"Oh. Hi Moka!" he replied as he turned, smiling despite how forward he was looking to a little solitude.

"You ran out of class so quickly! I was beginning to think you didn't like me," she smiled nervously as she closed the distance between them from 'politely aloof' to 'sharing a telephone booth'.

"Oh, it's not that! It's just that the atmosphere in class seemed a little…weird to me. I just wanted to get out and get some fresh air and a drink."

"I know exactly what you mean!" her green eyes locked with his. "Don't some of them smell absolutely awful? Surely, they could do a better job of hiding their scent than that!"

"Huh?" Tsukune was now thoroughly confused. He knew from studying human physiology that human females had a more acute sense of smell than the males. "You mean you can discern people by their smell?" His studies never mentioned exactly _how_ much more acute.

"Of course I can, silly! That's how I knew right away I wanted to meet you! You have an absolutely delicious, wonderful scent! It's so much more pleasant than the other animals in class." With each pause in her speech, she inhaled deeply. "It's almost…human."

"Uh, thanks, I think?" he stammered. "Wait a minute. Is that exactly…normal? Or do you have a more sensitive nose than most?" He tried to remember what it was like to explore the world through scents and odors, but that ability was ten years behind him, in another, barely remembered life.

"Normal?" she echoed. "No. I probably have the most sensitive nose in the entire Academy. I should. I'm a vampire, after all."

"Oh," he chuckled nervously. "What was that?" It took a moment, but her matter-of-fact statement finally registered to his conscious mind.

"What? Oh no! We're not supposed to tell! Please don't say anything about it! I'd hate to get into trouble on my first day," she admonished sincerely.

"Don't worry!" he said. "As far as anyone else is concerned, you're as human as I am!" He chuckled inwardly at the irony of that statement. _Heh, pretending to be a vampire_, he mused, _weird, but not the weirdest thing I've seen humans do._

She looked at him oddly for a moment, and then laughed. "I get it! 'As human as I am', indeed! Tsukune, you're funny. I think I'd like us to be friends."

"I'd like that, too," he said earnestly. "I've never had a 'vampire' as a friend. It should be interesting." The vampire thing was little out there on the human scale of weird, but other than that, she seemed like a very nice girl. Someone he could definitely get along with. If he could just figure out what she was hiding…

Without warning, another aura intruded on his senses. This one was wild, undisciplined, and powerful. Almost simultaneously, a huge fist closed around his tie and lifted him of his feet. He recognized the aura before the face, but only just. Komiya Saizou sneered at him in disgust.

"Why are you with a weakling like this?" he said to Moka in a voice dripping with malice. "He smells human, he's weak like a human; I wouldn't be surprised if he actually _was_ a human! Ditch him and spend some time with a real monster!" With a shockingly easy flick of his arm, Saizou launched him bodily into the vending machine, smashing the front and sending glass and cans flying. Tsukune's breath left him with a cough, and his vision dimmed as he tried to suck air back into his lungs. Moka clenched her fists, interposing herself between the huge man and his prey.

"I'm with Tsukune right now! Leave him alone!" she cried, as she ran to her friend's side. "Are you alright? You're not hurt, are you?"

Coughing and gasping, Tsukune glanced past Moka at the departing bully. "I'll be okay. What the hell was that? I've never been tossed like that!" _I've never been surprised like that either_, he thought, _gotta be more aware of these strange auras._

"Tsukune! You're cut!" Moka's exclamation cut through his thoughts.

As he reached a hand up to check, Moka caught his wrist, taking out a handkerchief with her other hand and dabbing at his cheek.

"Thanks," he stammered, as she drew the bloodied handkerchief to her nose and inhaled. Too shocked to move or say anything, he watched as her cheeks flushed and her eyes glazed over. Something in her aura shifted, and before he could react, she pounced on him, fastening her lips to his neck. The most articulate sound he made was a surprised "Gah!", as he felt fangs sink into his neck, then heard her drinking noisily. Drinking his blood.

As fast as she pounced, she recoiled. "I'm so sorry, Tsukune! I didn't mean to... I never thought..."

"Did you just drink my BLOOD???" Tsukune blurted in a detached, horrified sort of fascination. "Really?" His hand shot up to his neck, searching for bleeding or puncture marks. There was a sore spot, like a bruise, but no flow of blood or other damage he could feel.

"Just a little," Moka answered sheepishly, looking deeply ashamed of her loss of control. "It's just so much like human blood, I couldn't help myself. It's been so long since I had any, and to have some that tasted so much like a human's..."

"That's because it IS human blood!" Tsukune shot back. "What else did you expect it to be?"

Moka blinked in shock. "Human blood? For real? You're not a monster?"

"Exactly what did I miss in this 'orientation' that Miss Nekonome mentioned?"

* * *

"And this is a school for monsters to learn to live among humans?" he prodded.

Moka nodded.

"All humans killed on sight?"

Moka nodded.

"And all the students are 'monsters'? Werewolves, trolls, ogres?"

Moka nodded.

"And you're actually an honest-to-goodness vampire?"

Moka nodded. "Do you really dislike vampires? Do you hate me now?"

Tsukune sighed. "You're the first vampire I've ever met. I thought we were getting along pretty good. I certainly don't hate you. I just didn't believe it at first." He paused. "Am I going to turn into a vampire, now?"

Moka held her hands up, "No! No, I can't turn you into a vampire by drinking from you!" She looked sadly at Tsukune. "Are you really a human?"

He sighed again. "Would it make a difference if I was?"

Moka looked down at her feet. "I hate humans. I spent middle school in a human school, and they made my life a living hell. They mocked me for being different, for being who I was. I couldn't make any friends. I'd have a hard time looking past that."

"What if, in every way that mattered, I was human? What if I could never show you any form but the one I'm in now? Would it matter that there was a time I wasn't human? A time I was neither human nor monster? Could you ever look at me without remembering those awful things they did to you?"

Moka looked up, catching his gaze. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that for as long as I can clearly remember, I've lived as a human, lived with humans. Been human. Sure, humans can be vicious, prejudiced, and close minded; but I also knew some who weren't. I've known some who I am truly proud to call friends. Could you do that?"

Moka's gaze again turned downward. "I don't know."

_

* * *

Success_, Tsukune thought morosely as he packed his bags. _Not only are you so full of WIN that everyone at monster school mistakes you for human, you are _too_ human to be friends with the cute, sweet vampire that the humans tormented. You're safe among the humans, go back to them, and this can all be just a bad dream. Enjoy the weirdness that is humanity._

Descending the steps of the dorm, Tsukune stopped a moment to glance at the Academy building in the distance. _Good luck with the co-existing thing, you guys are definitely going to need it._ With that parting thought, he turned, and started down the path to the bus stop, trying to remember that this was for the best.

Continued…


	3. Strange Battles

Disclaimer: I own nothing, except the desire to entertain myself and others using other people's characters.

A/N: Yay! Another update! Don't expect this pace to continue forever, but as long as my muse chooses not to be a heartless, fickle, evil, b**ch, I'll keep going. Thanks to those reviewing, it's very motivating!

Stranger In A Strange World  
Strange Battles

* * *

The path seemed gloomier, somehow; darker and more claustrophobic than when he was walking the other direction, Tsukune thought. It was as if the simple trail was reflecting his mood, responding to his unease. He paid little attention to the path. Now fully aware of the dangers of this place, he was focusing as closely as he could on the energies surrounding him. He did not intend to be taken unaware a second time; the first time could have easily cost him his life, and unfamiliar energy pervaded the very air everywhere in this strange world.

To his credit, Tsukune was aware and on his guard well before the blue-haired girl stepped out onto the path. Under any other circumstance, his human self would have found her very attractive. Her shoulder length blue hair framed a face with nearly flawless bone structure, and complemented her luminous violet eyes perfectly. The casual way in which she had her arms folded across her chest lifted and accentuated her already impressive mammalian endowment. Her physical form was not the focus of his attention, however, and not only did she radiate the now familiar, but unidentifiable nimbus of energy, but he also detected a very familiar form of power seeping from her. _Careful, Tsukune_, he admonished himself, _she's a psi user, and a powerful, if inexperienced one._

Stopping about six meters short of her, he decided his default strategy of 'be polite' was at least worth a try. "Hello," he said as neutrally as he could.

"Hello, yourself, Tsukune Aono," she replied, without apparent malice or mischief.

Tsukune's eyes narrowed. "You know my name." He hadn't detected any attempts at mental intrusion, and despite his apparent age, he had a good twenty plus years practice with his own abilities. So he was reasonably certain there hadn't been any. "How?" he asked.

The light reflected in her eyes danced as she smiled impishly. "I'm in your class, silly. One row over, two seats back." She sighed theatrically, "Everyone only has eyes for the pink-haired girl; poor Kurumu gets overlooked by the cute guys yet again. That's my name, by the way: Kurumu Kurono."

"Well," Tsukune said cautiously, starting to walk forward, "it's been very nice meeting you, but I must be going if I'm going to catch my bus."

Kurumu stepped directly in front of him, halting his progress. "You've got a while to wait for the bus, yet." She started to walk a slow circle around him, surveying him up and down as she spoke. "I wanted to meet you personally. I was curious."

"Really?" he asked. "About what, in particular?"

"What is it about you, Tsukune, that attracts the attention of the _second_ most gorgeous girl in the school, when she could have any monster here with two hormones to rub together? Well, any, of course, except the ones _I_ set my sights on."

_She doesn't see me!_ he thought. _She can't see my ability the way I see hers! Can't, or just doesn't, because she's not looking for it._ To Tsukune's perception, her 'monster' aura was a visibly luminous thing, like flames leaping faintly from the wick of a candle. Her psi energy shimmered from her like heat waves dancing off a sun-baked parking lot. If she wasn't looking for his, she might miss it, he reasoned.

"Maybe it's the way I smell?" he ventured. "She said something about that."

Kurumu paused at that, stopping and leaning in slightly to inhale deeply. His scent was very pleasant, and she exhaled with a soft sigh of contentment as she continued circling him. _Like a shark_, he thought.

"That's certainly part of it. Your disguise as a human is very good, not many monsters here would think of faking a human scent, or think of a way to do it if they did." She stopped circling again, locking her violet eyes onto his. "I'm curious as to how you managed it."

Tsukune's hesitation was milliseconds too long, apparently.

"Or even _if_ you did," she continued. "Maybe you _are_ a human, and she wants a pet. Maybe..."

Whatever the other maybe was, it would have to wait. Tsukune, mindful of the need for eyes in the back of his head, had not focused on Kurumu to the exclusion of the area around him. His senses detected a very familiar, unwelcome monstrous aura coming up behind him. A very near aura with clear killing intent. His movement toward her took her completely by surprise, and he managed to grasp her shoulders and push her back into the woods, then turned to face the imminent threat he sensed. Tsukune was a little surprised by the fact that Saizou was still nowhere near close enough to attack him physically. _Either I'm getting better at this, or he really, really wants me dead_, he thought as he focused now on his attacker.

"You're not getting away this time, you weakling!" Saizou bellowed. As he approached, he abandoned any semblance of a human disguise, swelling in height and bulk until the only thing missing was green skin. His shirt simply tore away from his form as the flesh it contained exceeded the structural limits of 100% cotton. Tsukune noted that the monstrous aura was now much subdued, as if much of the energy he detected was dedicated to maintaining the human form. He was now seeing the energy signature of a 'normal' creature, with inhuman size and mass, but no innate special abilities other than that. Tsukune squared himself in the path, and met Saizou's gaze directly. He was _certain_ (he hoped, please, Buddha!) about how he wanted to handle this particular menace.

"You surprised me before," he called, "but I'm ready for you now. Turn around and go back, and I might go easy on you!" _This better work, or I'm dead meat!_

Saizou roared in laughter. "Nothing's changed except the size of your balls! Since you've entertained me, I'll make this quick!" He launched a massive punch at the comparatively puny form of Tsukune.

And missed. A meter to the left. And again, with his other huge fist. And missed, this time, to the right. Attack after attack failed to land, while Tsukune stood impassively, watching the behemoth flail after him. With each successive attack, Tsukune moved ever so slightly toward the bus stop, or more accurately, the cliff overlooking the bus stop. Finally, bellowing in inarticulate rage, Saizou launched himself at the little upstart, arms outstretched; and passed directly over Tsukune's head, flinging himself bodily over the edge of the cliff. His roar of fury morphed into a howl of frustration and terror, as gravity took its hold, and beckoned him to the welcoming embrace of the rocks below.

"Tsukune!!" Moka's panicked cry pierced the evening air, as she arrived just in time to see Saizou disappear over the precipice. "What happened?"

"He missed," Tsukune deadpanned. "What did it look like?"

Moka blinked at him a few times, sure there was more to it than that.

"Why are you here, anyway?" Tsukune asked. "I thought you decided we couldn't be friends."

"Yeah, about that," she looked down at her fidgeting fingers. "I feel really bad about that. I mean, I gave you less of a chance than the humans gave me. Can you ever forgive me? I mean, it's not like you're _actually_ a human, right? You couldn't be; not after what I just saw."

Tsukune looked sadly at her. "Don't you get it? I might as well be human. I can't transform into a monster form. I'm weak as a human. I can't fight; I can only make it pointless to try to fight me. I'll _be_ human for at least another fifty years. Can you live with that?"

"I certainly could!" Kurumu stepped out of the trees to join the exchange. "You're something else Tsukune. What if he was closer? Your first instinct was to get me out of the way, then worry about defending yourself! You could have guaranteed your own safety if you weren't worried about me."

"And you could have been hit when I made him miss me!" Tsukune retorted. "I couldn't be responsible for that, ever!"

Kurumu's face brightened. "You were really worried about my safety before your own? How sweet!"

"Hey!" Moka had finally recovered from the surprise of another student's appearance. "We were having a moment, here! Do you mind?"

Kurumu looked at her, smiling impishly, as she closed on Tsukune, grasping his arm. "What, the kind of moment where you tell him you're too hung up on the past to give him a chance?"

Moka's eyes narrowed dangerously as she pulled him away from her. "I came to tell him I was sorry, and ask him not to leave. But if _you've_ set your sights on him, it might be the safest thing for him!"

"If I'd set my sights on him, I'd already have him!"

"We'll see about that, you hussy!"

"Tease!"

"Tramp!"

Tsukune watched in horrified awe as auras flared, and visible arcs of hostility flew between the girls. Hostility that, apparently, was sourced from their desire to be with _him_.

_Females are so weird_, he groaned inwardly, and turned back toward the Academy.

Continued…


	4. Strange Dreams

Disclaimer: I own nothing, except the desire to entertain myself and others using other people's characters.

A/N: Another update! Make it last, if you can. I'll be not be posting anymore until Christmas shutdown.

Stranger In A Strange World  
Strange Dreams

* * *

Sleep came neither easily nor deeply to Kurumu that night. She lay awake for hours trying to make sense of what she knew, didn't know, and thought she knew about the distinctly average and unassuming Tsukune Aono. Up until Saizou showed up, she was convinced he was human; she knew the scent and had detected no demonic or monstrous aura coming from him. Whether he was human or not was irrelevant to her plans earlier that day. The pink-haired girl, Moka, was diverting altogether too much male attention from her, and she had intended to steal the weakling away with her charm, perhaps suck his life force dry, and spend the remainder of the semester gloating over Moka's loneliness and despair. Pinkie would learn that you do not come between a succubus and her prey.

Three things changed her mind. First, she might not be the smartest demon in the Academy, but she knew matters of the heart, and had listened carefully to their reunion. Nothing was settled. Moka's prejudice could still drive her away from him, or drive him away from her. Moka wanted another chance to be friends, but there was a real possibility she could waste the opportunity to win Tsukune's affection. That possibility could become a strong probability, given the right 'nudges'. Kurumu smiled to herself at the irony of using Moka's own feelings to drive a wedge between her and the boy.

Second, for all his apparent weakness and suspicion of her, his first instinct at the approach of danger was to secure her safety, rather than his own. He gave up the certainty of his own safety at risk to her in favor of the opposite. No human or monster she ever knew did something like this as a reflex. He cared about others. She found herself hoping he could care about her specifically.

Third, and finally, as she watched the confrontation between Tsukune and Saizou, she had to admit she might have been wrong about his being human. Tsukune didn't dodge a single of Saizou's punches or swipes; Saizou just..._missed_. And while she failed to notice his aura of power while she was talking to him, he was unmistakably using some sort of mental power similar to her charm during the fight. She was less certain that he was human; not sure, still, that he wasn't; just less sure he was. It aroused jealous curiosity in her; a possessive need to be the one he shared his secret with, whatever it was.

She'd heard of very special and rare humans with strong psi abilities, and known one personally. Of course, by that girl's second year of middle school, she was transferred to a special school where most of the staff were called 'Doctor'. Very few human minds, it seemed, could deal with direct contact of any sort with each other. If he was human, she thought, he was a very, _very_ unique specimen of the species, and well worth her further attention.

That night, she had the same strangely comforting dream at least three times. In her dream, she would approach Moka and Tsukune in the hallway at school, she could see Moka say something to Tsukune, the curl of a sneer on her lip, and contempt in her eyes. Tsukune, pain evident on his face would recoil in revulsion, and turn to see her. His eyes would soften, and he would shake Moka's apologetic hand from his arm as he approached her, drawing intimately near, without actually taking her in his arms. Fixing her in place with only his large, brown eyes, his voice would echo in both her ears and mind at the same time as he said, _**"Be mine. Stay with me forever."**_ Kurumu recognizes the charm power right away, like a woolen blanket being thrown over her conscious mind, smothering her control under his own. Instead of flinging the blanket away, and resisting, she grasps it tightly to herself, and eagerly submits to his dominion.

* * *

It was backwards, Tsukune thought as he replayed the day's events in his head. Saizou's attack, he understood. In every species on the planet, males competed for females. That's why male birds were brightly colored and had plumage. Why male apes made displays of strength, and noise. Saizou had somehow perceived him as a threat to his pursuit of the vampire girl, Moka, and responded in a typical mammalian fashion. He was wrong, of course. Moka had already written Tsukune off as a potential friend, let alone mate. Or so he thought. Tsukune had already resigned himself to the fact that Moka couldn't see past his human form and smell, and they would be polite and aloof as classmates, if he stayed, or that she would simply go about her high school life as if he never existed, if he left. Again, he was struck by the irony that the things he didn't understand about human life would be taken in stride, here, but his form as a human wouldn't be. And then she came to him. She chased him down the forest path to ask for his forgiveness and forbearance. Again he asked her the same question as before, "Could you accept me as a human?" Again, he had no answer; although, this time the reason for it was that Kurumu had appeared to give her own answer to his question.

It was yes. Kurumu was a monster of substantial power and ability, and had come to her own conclusion that he was human, but still wanted to befriend him, apparently without reservations. And judging by the exchange between she and Moka, Kurumu would prefer exclusive rights to his friendship. Of course, that was only a conclusion he drew based on what he knew of human behavior; he had no idea if the same applied to monsters. For all he knew, in the monster world, it _was_ typical for the females to contend for the attention of the males. He just didn't know. He sighed inwardly, trying to force himself to sleep. _I'll bet humans already have this stuff all figured out_, he thought with a twinge of envy.

* * *

Moka was faring no better than the other two of the odd trio. _Tsukune, what are you?_ she asked an unresponsive cosmos. He was so human. The form and smell were indistinguishable from the hordes of humans she lived among, but she saw him defeat the orc, Saizou, without even breaking a sweat. He wasn't even breathing heavily as he greeted her. No human could ever accomplish a feat like that, could they? And what was it the demon girl said? He put her safety before his own? That certainly didn't sound human, either. Why was he so insistent that she accept him as a human? Why not just share the secret of his monster form and forget all about her level of tolerance for humans? If he could just do that, they could be the best of friends, couldn't they?

_**Why all this angst over a lower life form? Befriend him enough to get some of his blood from time to time, and be done with it when you graduate.**_ Inner Moka's cold voice now intruded on her musings.

_He's not a lower life form; I don't know what he is!_ Outer Moka shot back.

_**He's not a vampire. That much is certain. He is, by definition, a lower life form. If you want a pet, get a parakeet.**_

_I don't want a pet, I want a friend!_

_**Even one so human? Do you want to be his friend, or just run interference on the big-breasted demon girl? **_**That**_**, I could understand: A vampire loses nothing, to **_**anyone**_**. Not even a disposable momentary diversion. What exactly is it you want from him?**_

"I don't know!" Moka wailed aloud into her pillow...

Continued…


	5. Strange Activities

Disclaimer: I own nothing, except the desire to entertain myself and others using other people's characters.

A/N: Can't. Stop. Tinkering… Must. Modify. Events. Seriously, you've read the manga, or watched the anime, so why would you want to read that story all over again? If you enjoy reading this a tenth as much as I've enjoyed writing it, I consider it a success. Just for kicks, I'm throwing in a periodic serial omake…the Aono family story. I wrote it, I might as well publish it. I'll be pacing it so as not to drop spoilers (I hope), so don't expect one every chapter.

* * *

Stranger In A Strange World

Strange Activities

"_The perversity of the Universe tends toward a maximum."  
__ - O'Toole's Corollary of Finagle's Law_

* * *

Twenty-four hours ago, Tsukune was worried that his life for the last ten years was the product of a cruel prank played by an indifferent Universe. Since his arrival at Youkai Academy, his worry evaporated with the certainty that the Universe was _not_ apathetic to his plight. He knew now, with a conviction that bordered on religious fervor, that the Universe _hated_ him with a fury that dwarfed the death throes of red giant in final collapse. Twenty-four hours ago, vampires, werewolves, orcs, and other "monsters" lived only between the covers of books, engraved on frames of celluloid, or safely in the unconscious world of human nightmares. This morning, he had a "bruise" on his neck concealing two needle-fine punctures that spoke eloquently in favor of the existence of vampires. Twenty-four hours ago, his list of worries included wedgies, being stuffed into a locker, or being laughed at when he said something odd or outlandish. This morning, one of his first worried thoughts was to question his position in the local food chain. Twenty-four hours ago, he was a stranger in human form, hoping to be accepted as human. Ever since he stepped off the bus yesterday, his very life depended on his not being _mistaken_ for a human.

Between the times Tsukune warily exited his dorm room, and he shuffled into the dormitory's common bath, his "Gah!" reflex had been completed used up, and he took no notice of the monster, half-monster, and mostly-human forms gathered there. Apparently, many monsters needed to concentrate on maintaining human form, and some reverted to their true forms while they slept. He wondered sleepily if it was a good thing or not that his transformation into human form was effectively permanent without extremely skilled, high-level medical intervention. After his morning ablutions, he dressed and decided resolutely to face the day with renewed confidence and a positive attitude.

Stepping outside the dorm, Tsukune took in the view with improving optimism. The sun was shining, highlighting the glossy black feathers of the crows squawking in the gnarled and bare trees. The bits of mica in the cracked granite headstones sparkled like stars on a clear night. Taking in the bright morning vista, he failed to notice a blur of pink hair and emerald eyes approaching at nearly escape velocity, until it intersected his position.

"Good morning, Tsukune!" Moka's arms wrapped themselves around his neck, taking them both awkwardly to the ground. "Sorry! I was just so happy to see you're still here! I was worried you'd still try to leave Youkai."

"Soooo, you want me to stay?" he asked. "It doesn't matter that…"

Moka silenced him with a finger to his lips. "I thought about how I acted last night; almost all night. You didn't even once think that we couldn't be friends because I'm a vampire, did you?"

With Moka's finger still pressed firmly to his mouth, Tsukune simply shook his head.

"That's the kind of friend I need; human or monster, it doesn't matter. That's the kind of friend I want to learn how to be. Will you teach me that, Tsukune?" she asked as her eyes pleaded with his.

Tsukune nodded.

Moka squealed in delight, and threw her arms around his neck again, resting her chin on his shoulder. As she inhaled deeply in satisfaction, a familiar, succulent scent entered her nostrils. Sighing with longing, she whispered, "Tsukune, you still have the most wonderful scent. It's intoxicating, it's alluring, it's…"

Whatever else it was would remain unknown as again, she fastened herself to his neck and drank, this time more gently and demurely, but with no less enjoyment. It didn't hurt nearly as much this time, but it was only slightly less disturbing than the first time.

"C'mon, Moka!" Tsukune complained, "I'm not a juice box! Couldn't you at least _ask_ before you drink?" _This can't be sanitary!_ he thought.

"Oh, sorry," she said, releasing him, but not recoiling in shame this time. "It's just…erm…you're my first!" She got to her feet, helping him up.

"Your first what?" he asked, as they started the short walk to the Academy school building.

She hesitated, as if embarrassed. "My first living source of food. Up until now, I've always survived on transfusion packs; and tomato juice can take some of the edge off my thirst. But your blood is so warm, and sweet; almost addictive! I had no idea what I was missing! I knew I was craving something different, but never knew what until I smelled you." Moka paused to catch his eyes with hers. "Can you understand any of this?"

Tsukune nodded, his eyes suddenly looking at something very far away. "You mean, even though you've taken nourishment from substitutes, and survived on them, your mind and body was always still craving their natural source of sustenance. Something you knew you wanted and you could never suppress your natural longing for it? Something like that?" He looked directly at her, his eyes full of knowing sympathy. "Yeah, I know exactly what that's like."

Moka gasped softly, looking at him with renewed warmth. "You do understand, don't you?" she asked. "So…could I…would it be okay if…I drank some of your blood from time to time?"

"Would it be safe?" Tsukune asked.

"Of course it would!" Moka held up her hands. "I'd never take enough to hurt you, and the bruising was only because I lost control of myself! You'd never have to worry about…"

He cut her off with a finger to her lips. "I mean, safe for _both_ of us. Could you get sick from me if I catch the flu, or something?"

Moka's heart fluttered madly in her chest, and she almost sobbed at the thought of how close she came to throwing away such kindness. "Oh, no!" she replied. "Or rather, if you were sick enough that it would be a problem for either of us, I'd smell it right away! I would drink a transfusion pack in that case, and walk you straight to the infirmary!" _'Safe for both of us'_, she repeated silently to herself. _Is that Lesson One, Tsukune? Not 'for me', not 'for you'; 'for _us_'. _Moka sighed happily as she gathered his hand in hers to continue the walk to their morning classes, oblivious to the violet eyes measuring their progress down the path.

Kurumu Kurono's eyes narrowed as her mouth set in a determined line. She was very…disappointed to see that the pink-haired tease was making real progress with someone that _she_ now had a genuine interest in.

_Looks like Plan A, Phase 1 is back on the agenda_, she thought with an malevolent smirk.

* * *

"…so, as part of your education about the human world, you're all going to join an extra-curricular activity club, or something," said Miss Nekonome, oblivious to the fact that her white-tipped orange tail was visible, and waving lazily behind her. "As you may or may not know, I am the faculty advisor for the school newspaper club, so I hope to see at least a few of you there!"

One student raised his hand, and asked, "Is there a list of clubs we could look at? How do we go about picking one?"

"That's easy," Shizuka giggled. "This afternoon, the upper classmen will be setting up display tables and stalls to try to recruit you to join their club. The more members a club has, the better their funding and resources, and the more activities they can afford to do as a group. But be aware, not all clubs are exactly what they seem to be! We don't want a repeat of the 'Biology Club Incident'." Her tail straightened and puffed out, as she closed her eyes and shuddered momentarily.

* * *

That afternoon, Tsukune, with Kurumu and Moka in tow, browsed the campus, looking at various activity club tables. The Biology Club had apparently received permission to reform this year, as they stood forlornly at their deserted table, dressed in surgical scrubs. The table, oddly enough, appeared to be some sort of stainless steel gurney, with surgical instruments on display on top of it. "Learn the secrets of Life!" they bawled. "Discover the anatomy of lower beings!"

Tsukune suppressed an involuntary shiver, and moved on. Turning back to the fray of browsing monsters and club-pitching upper classmen, he felt a pair of slender arms drape over his shoulders. A musical voice greeted his ears, "How about something nice and normal? Try the Swim Club!"

He froze for an instant, and blurted, "No!" at exactly the same time as Moka.

"Hey! Why not? I look great in a bikini!" Kurumu looked hopefully at Tsukune, striking a provocative pose.

"NO!!" Again, Moka and Tsukune were in perfect sync. They looked questioningly at each other for a moment, before Moka said, "Fresh water damages vampires. It drains our power and hurts like electric shocks!"

"If I never go swimming again, it'll still be too soon!" Tsukune replied vehemently, his left eye twitching slightly.

"Alright, swimming club's out," agreed Kurumu, with a note of disappointment in her voice. "What about the Cooking Club?"

Tsukune and Moka's eyes met again, and again in unison, they shrugged. "How could that be so bad?" Moka asked.

A few minutes later, they were at the Cooking Club's stall, receiving the pitch from the club president. "Each week, we pick a style of cooking, or ethnic cuisine, and each cook a dish to contribute to the menu for a group dinner. We also get to venture out to various places in the human world and sample the food in its native setting."

_This doesn't sound so bad_, thought Tsukune, as he watched the second- and third-year members behind the table whip up various recipes. His fascination turned almost instantly to revulsion, as he saw one girl pluck an egg out of the carton, and casually crack it, breaking the contents into the mixing bowl she was filling with ingredients. "Augh!" a strangled cry of disgust burst from his lips, as his hands flew up to his mouth. With eyes wide as saucers, he backed away from the table in abject horror, stifling a gag with his hands.

Moka and Kurumu looked at each other in puzzlement, then in resignation. "Looks like the Cooking Club is out, too," Moka sighed.

"Hey look! There's an Astronomy Club!" Tsukune pointed happily. "I could get into that!"

"Boooring." Now, Moka and Kurumu's voices were in perfect harmony.

"How can you say that?" a disappointed voice broke in from behind them. A tall, shapely brunette wearing glasses that gave her a serious, studious appearance was speaking to the girls. "Just imagine: warm, clear nights spent isolated from the Academy, just gazing up at the starry heavens. Doesn't that sound peaceful?" she asked.

_Sounds…romantic_, Kurumu thought. Aloud, she chirped, "I'm in! I'll join with you, Tsukune!" Wrapping her arms around him, she sighed as she rubbed herself on his torso, "We can spend _hours_ away from campus together, all alone in the dark. Won't that be nice?" To his credit, Tsukune managed not to faint or hemorrhage nasally, but his blush was virtually luminous, and his mouth opened and closed in helpless shock.

"I'm Ririko Kagome, the faculty advisor, and math teacher for first year classes," the brunette introduced herself. "I take it we have two new members?"

"You mean three!" Moka added sweetly, as she glared daggers at Kurumu.

* * *

"Welcome to the Youkai School Newspaper Club!" Miss Nekonome's vacuous smile greeted the two students seated in the club room. Mizore Shirayuki, violet-haired and blue-eyed, shifted a lollipop absently in her mouth as she regarded the feline faculty advisor. The only other occupant of the room was a strangely-dressed child, who smelled, for all she could tell, like a human. Eleven-year-old Yukari Sendo, dressed in a black cape and pointed, wide-brimmed hat, looked around the room.

"Is this it," she asked, "only two members?"

"I wouldn't worry about that," Shizuka said, "We always pick up a couple of more members from among the survivors of some of the other clubs! Let me introduce you to your club president, Ginei Morioka."

"Thank you, Nekonome-chan!" The upper classman flashed a cheesy, excessively-wide smile as he winked brazenly at her. "Lovely ladies, of course, may call me 'Gin'!"

The tall, dark-haired monster was as good looking (almost) as he was cocky. Grinning at his new members, he continued, "This year, we at the Newspaper Club will be working in close…ahem…_cooperation_ with the student Public Safety Commission. We will continue to write witty, urbane, and up-to-the-minute articles for the students to enjoy, but the Commission will occasionally call upon us to do some investigative journalism or write a sanctioned editorial. _Of course_, we will assist them in any way we can."

His smiled tightened slightly as he asked, "Do you have any questions?"

* * *

Omake: Meet the Aono's Part 1

_Ten years ago_…

Due to a catastrophic navigational error, a small privately-owned interstellar craft exited foldspace close to an average-sized G-type star orbited by nine planets. Far too close. Returning to normal space so close to a stellar gravity well immediately disabled the craft's drive and navigation systems, and it was drawn helplessly by the gravity of the third planet in the system.

It was a rocky planet, as opposed to a gas giant or ball of frozen methane, about three quarters covered in water, with distinctly separated continental masses. Initial scans showed a breathable atmosphere, with slightly higher oxygen content than Home, and a chillier overall climate than would be comfortable, but by all means survivable. It was also inhabited by an array of pre-interstellar industrial civilizations.

Initial trajectory estimates showed impact in the middle of the northern half of the largest body of water on the surface. Frantic manual adjustments using thrusters and atmospheric brakes managed a course correction, aiming the ship closer to a small group of islands on the western edge of the immense ocean. Its velocity was just under the atmospheric speed of sound when it slammed into the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Okinawa…

* * *

Continued…


	6. Strange Charms Pt 1

Disclaimer: I own nothing, except the desire to entertain myself and others using other people's characters.

A/N: Short chapter, but I needed to separate the lead-up from the actual mental confrontation. This might actually turn into a three-part chapter: I have to see how my notes translate into prose...

Stranger In A Strange World  
Strange Charms Pt 1

"_"Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned__."__  
- William Congreve_

* * *

Kurumu Kurono didn't have anything _against_ Tsukune, in particular; quite the opposite, in fact. He seemed like a very friendly, caring and considerate boy. It wasn't like it was his fault that he and a third of the males at Youkai Academy were in some kind of adolescent thrall to the pink-haired harpy. She wasn't stealing him away; she was rescuing him; with or without his permission. With Tsukune safely tucked away in her harem of love slaves, and the green-eyed tease broken and humiliated, she could continue to expand her following unimpeded, and carry on her search for her Destined One.

_Just the addition of such a caring and sensitive creature like Tsukune to my harem doubles my chances of finding my Destined One_, she thought as she made her way to home room. _Even if he isn't the One, anyone he gets along with well would be a likely candidate._ Anyone that the boy actively disliked, she could eliminate from the running and dispose of. It would be like having _two_ hearts searching for her Destined One, rather than hers alone. That alone was more than enough reason to make sure he remained contented and satisfied with his role in her harem. _Don't worry, my Tsukune. If you aren't the One, I'll spare you the fate of the others, and release you. And in the meantime, I'll make you deliriously happy. All you have to do is submit yourself to me._

And that was the problem. Kurumu hadn't yet attempted to Charm him, and she wasn't _certain_ it would work. She saw the evidence of his psi ability during his fight with Saizou, but that gave her no indication of how powerful he really was. Mentally dominating or influencing an orc was the psi equivalent of beating up a four-year-old; even the weakest users of mental powers could do it. She knew her own power was not to be despised. Her bevy of slaves now numbered about a dozen, some of them powerful monsters in their own right. They were helpless, however, before the Charm power of a succubus. She did not detect anything close to her own level of power coming from Tsukune.

_Power_, she thought. _That's the key. He'll detect my Charm and recognize it for what it is. Detecting and recognizing are not the same as resisting. I'll have to deliver everything I've got in one overwhelming attack; slam down on his control and free will like a bear trap snapping shut. I don't envy the migraine he'll have, but that will be after the fact, and I can make it up to him. I'm sure he'll be _happy_ to forgive me for that minor inconvenience. _

She smiled contentedly to herself as she took her seat at the back of the classroom. All she needed now was a few semi-private moments of conversation with the friendly, caring, considerate, and completely unwary Tsukune.

* * *

It wasn't as if Tsukune could read minds; at least not uninvited, anyway. As were all of his race, he was telepathically "sensitive", and could detect psychic energies as they radiated from sentient beings. With effort and concentration, he could influence the minds of others in limited ways, but he was a much more accomplished 'receiver' than a 'transmitter'. The nature and strength of these energies could be interpreted, making him a fairly sensitive empath. Sometimes it was just a good as reading minds. Right now, he was desperately wishing that he could read Kurumu's mind. The energy she was radiating wasn't swirling, or random, as it was with most of the auras he saw today; it was focused, tightly bound. If he had to give a name to the emotional content of what he saw, it would be: intent. Her mind and powers were focused in a way he'd never seen broadcast by her, and he was her focus.

She wasn't staring at him the entire class, giving any outward physical sign of her interest, but he could almost feel, physically, her emotional attention towards him, like a heat lamp warming the back of his head and neck. Willing himself to keep calm, he locked down his own reactions and emotions as best he could. The last thing he wanted was to telegraph to the girl that she had given herself away. For the entire class, Tsukune found the most interesting feature of the room was the clock, as he willed it to sweep both of its hands to twelve.

* * *

The instant the chimes rang to announce lunch break, Tsukune jumped up and grabbed a pleasantly surprised Moka by her hand, leading her out to the hall. He wanted people around, he wanted escape routes, and he wanted distance between himself and Kurumu.

"What's going on?" asked a confused Moka. "It's not that I mind that you want to spend time with me, but why the rush?"

"It's…aah…there's something up with Kurumu today, I think," he replied nervously.

"How sweet!" Kurumu's voice was originating from directly behind him. "Do you _always_ worry about me like that, Tsukune?"

"Oh. Hi, Kurumu," he replied, a little flustered, and scratching the back of head nervously as he turned to face her. "Feeling alright today?"

"Now that you ask, I am feeling a little off today. Do you and Moka mind walking with me to the infirmary?"

"Of course not!" replied Moka, seemingly oblivious to Tsukune's unease and Kurumu's intensity. "Let's go!" she said as she hugged herself to Tsukune's arm.

"I wanted to talk to Tsukune, anyway. You don't mind if we walk ahead a bit, do you, Moka?" Kurumu's tone was nonchalant and casual, and there was no way for Tsukune to politely refuse, if Moka acquiesced. She did.

After walking about halfway to the infirmary in silence, Tsukune finally asked, "What did you want to talk about, Kurumu?"

"About us; me, you, and Moka. About something very important to me, and how you and Moka can help." Kurumu took a breath. "I'm a succubus. I know we're not supposed to tell, but I wanted you to know."

Tsukune rifled the contents of his brain under 'Judeo-Christian Mythology', and his eyes lit up in recognition. "Mythical sex demon! Appears to human males in their dreams, and mates with them, drawing out and feeding on their life force, right?"

Kurumu pouted. "Do I look 'mythical' to you?"

Tsukune chuckled. "I guess not. But what else about the myth is wrong?"

"Almost all of it. We _are_ very sexual creatures, but we don't appear in dreams, except as a result of the dreamer's own desires. We find that very flattering, by the way. We can and do feed on life force energy, but not necessarily as a result of mating. We are _very_ rare; almost extinct, which brings me to a slight dilemma."

"Oh?" Tsukune found he was relaxing slightly, in spite of his earlier trepidation.

"We mate for life, with only one male, ever. It must be a very special male, one we call a 'Destined One'. To find Him, we attract a large pool of male suitors from which to select our Destined One. By our nature, we induce very strong attractions, and they seem almost like our slaves. It's traditional for us to eventually select our Destined One, and discard the rest, feeding on their life force."

Tsukune was shocked at how forthcoming Kurumu was being, and was now starting to worry again. "Okay. How does this have anything to do with me or Moka?"

"Moka," she said, "is a little bit of a problem. Her human form's physical attractiveness and bright, sunny personality is naturally a draw for many of the male monsters here at Youkai. She has suitors that she will never even have a use for, and reduces the pool of males whom I can easily attract. If she were 'off the market', so to speak…" Kurumu looked pointedly at Tsukune.

_That's what all the intensity was about_, Tsukune thought, slapping himself mentally for his paranoia. _She wants to play matchmaker!_ Aloud, he said, "What? You mean you want me and Moka to…" Tsukune was incredulous.

Kurumu sighed. "That would have been the easy solution, but neither of you are ready for that, I suppose. I have a Plan B, though. Would you like to hear it?"

"Okay. Let's hear it."

The succubus turned to Tsukune, taking his face in her hands to gaze into his eyes. "You come to me as my favorite slave, leaving Moka alone and friendless. Her bright, sunny disposition goes down the tubes, probably along with her looks; and you get to contend with the others of my harem to be my Destined One. I wouldn't worry, you're already the front runner, and I'd spare you the whole 'feed on your life force' thing, even if you weren't the One, provided you helped me find Him." Her grip on his head became vice-like and her voice hardened. "This only hurts if you fight it, Tsukune, so you might as well just give in," she said, as she unleashed the full, unrestrained force of her Charm on him.

* * *

A/N: What? I fancied a bit of a cliffie…

Next chapter in a couple of days.

Continued…


	7. Strange Charms Pt 2

Disclaimer: I own nothing, except the desire to entertain myself and others using other people's characters.

A/N: I decided to keep the same quote. (It's just so damn appropriate.) I hope you guys see why I split the chapter...

Stranger In A Strange World

Strange Charms Pt 2

"_Heaven hath ____no__ rage like love to hatred turned, Nor ____hell__ a ____fury__ like a woman scorned__."_

_ - William Congreve_

* * *

"…_I have a Plan B, though. Would you like to hear it?"_

"_Okay. Let's hear it."_

_The succubus turned to Tsukune, taking his face in her hands to gaze into his eyes. "You come to me as my favorite slave, leaving Moka alone and friendless. Her bright, sunny disposition goes down the tubes, probably along with her looks; and you get to contend with the others of my harem to be my Destined One. I wouldn't worry, you're already the front runner, and I'd spare you the whole 'feed on your life force' thing, even if you weren't the One, provided you helped me find Him." Her grip on his head became vice-like and her voice hardened. "This only hurts if you fight it, Tsukune. You might as well just give in," she said, as she unleashed the full force of her Charm on him._

* * *

It is a truth among telepathic species that there is a generally acknowledged code of conduct; a set of common courtesies that are more or less universally observed. One of these courtesies is that it is never acceptable to attempt to mentally dominate or usurp the control of any other sentient being, psi-aware or otherwise. Such an attempt was a violation of the worst kind, and _no_ response would be considered excessive by civilized telepaths. These courtesies, however, are a learned behavior, and among children of these species in particular, breaches of etiquette are a common occurrence. It was as a result of childhood "rough-housing" and games of telepathic "tag" that Tsukune knew immediately what was happening, and what his options were.

Attempts to control one's mind manifest as anything from friendly persuasion, to the sensation of one's conscious will being "smothered", as if by a blanket, in the case of stronger telepaths. A telepath who sensed the attack had three options: push the attack away with superior strength, wriggle free with superior skill and control, or submit and break the control later with a focused effort and surprise. Tsukune examined his options quickly, and came to a conclusion in milliseconds. Pushing the attack away was absolutely, positively out of the question. The force of will now bearing down on his mind was not a nudge, nor was it a smothering blanket. It was a fist, closing inexorably on his ego; a gauntleted fist, closing like the jaws of a vice. Never before had he encountered this much raw power dedicated to forcing free will into submission. He realized also that submission to this kind of power would be permanent. No amount of focused effort or planning to "fight another day" would break the control, once he was in its grasp. If his free will was to survive this encounter, it had to be now, or never; or until she released him of her own volition. He was going to have to rely on skill; that, and prayer to a Universe he was sure hated him.

Kurumu's Charm was strong, but clumsy. Her abilities had only manifest along with the onset of puberty. Even being an early bloomer, like most succubae, she had, at best, three or four years of practice using her Charm. With no real challenges in the monster world to her psi abilities, she hadn't yet developed the refinement and skill her mother possessed. As long as she was strong enough to beat the comparatively weak psyches of male monsters into submission, it would do; or so she thought. Her invasion of his mind was almost instantaneous, and she could tell immediately that in terms of raw power, he was sorely outclassed. She exulted in her imminent victory as she closed the fingers of her mind on his.

"_**I'm sorry, Tsukune. This will all be over shortly**_," she said directly to his mind.

She didn't even question the complete absence of resistance until her clamp was half closed, and had still encountered nothing of his conscious ego. _Odd_, she thought, as she continued to close the trap. Usually, the weak and vulnerable egos of unaware monsters and humans felt like a fluttering bird trying to escape her mind's grasp. She usually had to be careful not to break them once they were contained. Finally just as the fist was finally closing, she felt him, wriggling like…an eel? Just as the trap finally closed, Tsukune squirted out of her grasp as she reflexively relaxed the full force of her attack to avoid crushing him.

Tsukune knew he would have one, and only one chance to escape, and it depended on whether she wanted to own him as he was, or crush him into a shell of his former self. There was no real malice in her attack, only need; like an emotional imperative. He took the gamble that she wanted him undamaged. Retreating from the jaws of the trap closing on him, he drew his ego into an impossibly tight, compact ball, compressing his psyche until it wanted to burst. His control had to be precise, and well timed. Unlike Kurumu, Tsukune was born telepathically aware, and prior to his assumption of human form, had nine of his twelve years of age to practice and refine his abilities. Added to his ten years as a human with psychic awareness, he had been honing his skills for nineteen subjective years. In a contest of skill, he ran mental circles around her. He squirmed out of the closing trap, just as he detected the uncertainty of capture from its owner. Slithering free of the crushing fist, he counterattacked.

* * *

Kurumu's shock at her closed and empty trap caused her to pause for an instant. She needed to nail him down _now_, before he could physically escape or counterattack. Her mind didn't even consider the possibility that such a psychically weak creature would go on the offensive. Her mind was wrong. There was no way Tsukune could initiate the attack he launched without first being invaded, but once the connection between minds was made, however, he could use it to his own ends. With a speed born of the mixture of skill and panic, he raced back up Kurumu's connection with his mind, and went immediately for what would be, he hoped, a knockout blow.

"_**No, Kurumu. **_**I'm**_** sorry I have to do **_**this**_**."**_

With his own mental fist, reached for her id, the center of her subconscious instinctual impulses and fears, and squeezed _hard_. Tsukune flinched in embarrassment at what he had just done, but kept the pressure on. Much of Kurumu's instinctual impulses were manifestations of deep, conscious and unconscious fears. Fear of rejection, fear of extinction, fear of inadequacy. All burst forth upon his attack, contaminating her conscious thoughts in ways she never experienced before. In human physical terms, he had just groped her in an intimate area, and it wasn't some playful "salary man on a crowded subway" grope, like those he had seen back in Kanagawa. It was the psychic equivalent of an unwelcome and unexpected squeeze to her bare nether region with very cold hands. It was something Tsukune _never_ thought he could be pushed to do.

Kurumu recoiled in shock and revulsion, breaking the mental connection. She was just about to gather herself for a second attempt, when Tsukune's gaze suddenly hardened. His open right hand came up, slapping her soundly across the cheek, even as his left hand grasped her shoulder to steady her against falling to the ground.

"Don't ever try that again," he hissed, "_ever_." His gaze was a mix of equal parts anger at the violation she had just attempted, pity for the fears he now knew motivated it, and shame for the way he counterattacked. Tsukune expected one of two probable reactions and braced himself. She would either shake loose from his grasp, fleeing to gather her tattered emotions; or she would collapse against him in a sobbing heap. He watched her carefully as she lowered her head, and her aura gathered in on itself.

_Oh crap._ Tsukune gaped in stunned fear as Kurumu's demonic aura flared like a detonation. _I guess 'all-consuming, psychotic rage' should have been on the 'probable' list for a succubus_, he thought, as bat-like wings tore through her sweater and spread like a cobra's hood, and a whip-like, pointed tail protruded from under her skirt.

Fixing her furious violet eyes on her would-be slave, she hissed three words at him.

"Now I'm _pissed_."

* * *

Moka watched Tsukune and Kurumu strolling down the hall while they talked with apparent disinterest. In truth, she was absorbing every word as the succubus revealed herself to the boy; her hearing was almost as good as her vampire sense of smell. Alarms bells rang in her head as she watched the succubus lock eyes with her special 'first friend'. By the time Kurumu was telling Tsukune to "just give in", she was already in motion toward the pair. Whatever transpired between them took less than a second, and her eyes widened in shock as sweet, gentle Tsukune raised his hand to slap the petite blue-haired monster. Kurumu had just completed her transformation to monster form when Moka's desperate push sent her sailing through the hallway window into the sky outside.

"Tsukune! Run! I'll hold her off!" Moka cried as she readied herself to fight in her weakened, sealed form. Too late, Tsukune started to turn from the broken window as the whip-like, leathery tail wrapped around his neck, hauling him out through the window. "Tsukune!" Moka's desperate voice rang out again, as she grabbed onto his legs, only to be pulled out with him.

Kurumu beat her wings furiously, struggling against the weight of two human-form monsters. She was about fifteen meters in the air and couple of hundred away from the school, when her prehensile tail finally gave up the effort to retain her prey. Catching her breath, she watched the pair disappear into the forest canopy below.

Moka and Tsukune struggled to a sitting position, gathering their wits. Moka fumbled with something at her neck, as Tsukune scanned the surrounding sky, looking for telltale wings.

"Tsukune! You have to help me! See if you can get this off!" Moka grabbed his hand and wrapped it around an odd-looking cross fastened around her neck. He tugged at it tentatively, wondering what the hell a _vampire_ was doing wearing a cross.

"How sweet! You don't have time for that kind of hanky-panky; not when you're about to die in each others arms!" Kurumu's shrill, enraged voice was approaching fast. The pair flattened on the ground, just as the succubus made a low pass, now brandishing freakishly long talons. Tsukune watched in horror as a couple of unfortunate trees slid off now-separated stumps, revealing clean-cut smoothness.

Grabbing Tsukune and yelling "Come on!" Moka ran for the cover of some shrubbery. Just evading yet another high-speed pass, Tsukune and Moka tumbled into a heap at the end of the clearing. Tsukune looked down curiously at the strange silver cross that now rested in his hand, leaking residual energy. He was a fairly intelligent creature, and quickly realized why it seemed to his senses that Moka was the psychic equivalent of a nuclear warhead. Without this fastened to her, she was. Pain stabbed through his brain, as her unrestrained aura flared like a supernova. Tsukune clutched his head, howling in agony as swirling energies burst forth from the vampire. As the inferno burned in his mind, he collapsed heavily to the forest floor, panting in exertion and pain.

A new Moka stood arrogantly in the clearing. Taller, more mature, she had a fuller figure than her pink-haired alter ego, with long silver hair, and burning red eyes with reptilian, slit pupils. She smiled malevolently at the now anxious Kurumu, her prominent fangs exposed by cold sneer that made mockery of a smile.

Kurumu swallowed nervously, gathering up her courage. "I won't let you interfere with my search for my Destined One! I can still fight you!" she said with more bravado than she actually felt.

"That's why you bare your fangs at _me_? Come little devil, show me what you've got!" Moka's cold voice ridiculed the succubus.

Kurumu dove full speed at the vampire, putting everything into one all-out attack. Her talons met only empty air, as she felt an iron grip fasten around her tail. Snatched out of the air, and helpless, she felt herself slammed mercilessly into the ground, knocking the wind out of her. Moka lifted the hapless succubus by her tail, and launched a single, almost negligent kick, as she said, "Know your place!" Kurumu's limp body described a shallow arc, flying through the air until its flight was interrupted by impact with a large tree trunk. Utterly beaten, her shoulders slumped as she waited for the end.

Moka advanced on the broken girl, eyes flashing in annoyance. "For disturbing my rest, you will pay. I'm going to snap those wings of yours, little succubus, and rip that tail off. You can think about the cost of aggravating me while you watch the crows and insects do what you no longer can."

"P-P-Please, have mercy," Kurumu cried. "I…"

Her begging was interrupted by Tsukune's arrival between the two. Trembling in pain and exhaustion, he stood shakily in front of the vampire with his arms outstretched. "Please, Moka. It's enough. She's beaten, and there's no need to maim her!"

Moka scowled in irritation. "She tried to Charm and enslave you, and then tried to kill you when that failed. Are you so forgiving as that? What if she tries again?"

"She did what she did out of instinct and ignorance. And fear. I am as certain as I can be that she won't try it again!"

"Oh?" Moka raised one eyebrow questioningly.

"I've seen her mind. It's not evil, just desperate for her Destined One. We can get along if she can accept some limits." Tsukune looked at her in determination, and not a small amount of fear.

"Very well; you need to be more careful, Tsukune. Your blood is of no use to me if it's splashed all over a forest clearing." She took the cross from his hand, and fixed an unreadable gaze on him. "Besides, the other Moka would keep me up all night crying if something happened to you." She fastened the cross back in position, and morphed almost instantly back to the pink-haired, green-eyed girl he knew, and the pain in his head receded to a dull ache. As it did, Moka slumped against him, spent. Tsukune caught her in his arms, and then they both crashed to the forest floor, fast asleep.

Kurumu, still sniffling and shedding tears of relief, regarded the unconscious pair. Her voice was full of admiration and longing as she whispered, "Tsukune."

* * *

Continued…


	8. Strange Revelations

Disclaimer: I own nothing, except the desire to entertain myself and others using other people's characters.

A/N: Thanks for the reviews and feedback. I'm making some 'tweaks' as a result of some of the feedback I'm getting. Thanks! (If the story sucks, it's my fault, not any reviewers')

Stranger In A Strange World  
Strange Revelations

"_Thus to be torn away from home and friends and all that was dear to me, and consigned to live like a brute among savages__..."  
- Jane Frazier_

* * *

Tsukune woke slowly, returning to consciousness in gradual stages. Still lying on the floor of the clearing in the trees, he shifted slightly, feeling warm softness under his head. Opening one eye, he scanned his limited field of view, starting to remember the events leading up to his current position. A soft groan escaped from his throat as he opened his other eye, taking in his surroundings. As it did, soft shushing sound reached his ear, and a gentle hand stroked his hair.

"Are you alright?" Kurumu's voice penetrated his just-awakened fog, and the previous afternoon's event swirled into his mind.

He was lying with his head on Kurumu's lap, with Moka lying on the ground just out of arm's reach away. Tsukune scrambled to get up, and his hand, groping for purchase to push him upright, fell on Kurumu's inner thigh, just as his ascending and turning face found the sweater-clad softness of her chest. Kurumu released a soft gasp of surprise, and an amused giggle, as he scrambled back in embarrassment.

"Sorry!" he blurted, still trying to gather his wits. It was late enough to be dark, but a nearly-full moon lit up the grove with pale light and the dancing shadows of the trees being shifted by a light breeze. Moka, roused by the exchange, started to stir as Tsukune took stock of the previous day's excitement. Looking at Kurumu, he asked, "How long were we asleep?"

"Asleep? You were completely unconscious!" Kurumu replied. "I tried to wake you, but when you wouldn't, I couldn't think of anything to do except try to make you comfortable. You were dead to the world for three hours!"

Tsukune's throbbing skull reminded him sharply of both the succubus's attempt to possess him, and the blinding pain of Moka's transformation. He cradled his head in his hands and sighed, then looked at Moka. "What's the deal with the cross and red eyes?" Turning to Kurumu, he asked, "And what's with going batshit crazy on me?"

Both girls looked sheepishly at him for a moment. Kurumu was the first to explain. "Well, I _am_ technically a demon. The wings and tail come with just a bit of a temper. I promise! It'll never happen again!"

"That's my undisguised form," Moka explained. "The 'cross' is actually an enchanted rosary, that seals my power and true form. Without it, even transformed into human, monsters can sense my vampire aura. Not many monsters voluntarily approach a vampire, let alone befriend one. Without this rosary, I was doomed to be just as lonely here, as I was in the human world." Moka looked angrily at the succubus. "What set you off like that? You tried to kill both of us! Was that just because he slapped you? If you tried to Charm him, no wonder he did that!"

Tsukune and Kurumu both flushed brightly. "When Tsukune escaped my Charm, he…well, that is he…" Kurumu stammered, flustered at the recollection of the intimacy of Tsukune's counter to her attempt.

"Let's just say she had reason to be upset!" Tsukune supplied. "Look at how late it is! I think we should talk about this over lunch tomorrow! Don't you think?" he asked with a note of eagerness in his voice.

Moka opened her mouth to protest, but was cut short by Kurumu. "I agree! We should all get a good night's sleep, and worry about all this tomorrow!" she said, a hint of a blush still coloring her cheeks.

Moka eyed the two suspiciously, but conceded. "Alright, let's go. But we are _definitely_ going to discuss this tomorrow!"

* * *

Tsukune had no trouble with sleep that night, and awoke stiff and sore, but alert. Shuffling through his morning routine, he considered what to tell his new friends. The whole "human, but not human" thing would probably not fly; at least not for much longer. He knew the truth of Moka and Kurumu's monster forms, and wondered if there was some kind of unwritten code, outside of school rules that dictated that he tell them the truth of his heritage. How much different from humans were these monsters, anyway? From what he could tell, not very much. This "Youkai Academy" had the same characters as any human school. He decided, at least, he would have to come clean about his non-human abilities; Kurumu already knew he was "gifted" in a similar way to her. In a way, it was a relief to know he could be honest about that part of himself without being thought to be a delusional freak, or carted off to a government facility for "testing". These monsters probably had as much to fear from human authorities as he did, maybe even more.

Just like the day before, Moka met him outside his dorm for the walk to classes. Her greeting was subdued, compared to yesterdays, a source of both relief and a twinge of disappointment. She even demurely asked for permission to drink his blood, politely waiting for the first syllable of "Okay", before eagerly latching onto his neck. On the way to the main Academy building, they chatted about classes, about their new club activities, anything but the night before. As they approached, an enthusiastic call of "Yahoo!" rang through the air. Tsukune turned, just in time to catch the airborne Kurumu as she glomped him, fastening her legs around his waist and pulling his head into her ample chest.

"Hey!" Moka grabbed the succubus, pulling her off Tsukune. "You'll suffocate him like that! Leave Tsukune be!"

"What's wrong, skinny? Didn't you leave him enough blood to hold his breath for a few seconds of blissful smothering?" Kurumu teased. "Besides, if I can't show a little affection for my Destined One, what's a poor, lonely demon to do?" she countered with a mock pout.

"Destined One?" asked Moka in horror; and Tsukune in shock.

"Of course! I've decided that the brave, gallant, and apparently Charm-proof Tsukune is my Destined One. It's a rare and precious male that can put a succubus in her place and make her work for her dinner, and I intend to make him _mine_, even if I have to do it the hard way!"

Moka could only stare in shock, as Kurumu seized Tsukune's arm, and dragged him to their home room class.

* * *

After shooing away her harem to the opposite side of the cafeteria, Kurumu joined Tsukune and Moka at their table in a corner of the room. No monsters sat within two tables of the trio, some glancing nervously at them, but avoiding eye contact. The three were seen flying off campus grounds, and disappearing into the trees. No one failed to notice the flare of a vampire aura, and its disappearance. Rumors flew that the three had bested an unsealed vampire. Or that one of them was the vampire, and the other two had fought the vampire to a stalemate. Or…and the rumors continued. The result was the same: no one disturbed the three as they talked.

"So you tried to charm Tsukune." Moka charged. "What happened?"

"He's not terribly strong," Kurumu answered, "But he's skilled and disciplined. I've never encountered a mind like his. When he shook off the Charm, he came back at me. In a way that was deeply disturbing…"

"She had me pretty freaked out." Tsukune took up their narrative. "I was scared and hit back, mentally, maybe a little harder than I should have. When you fight, you try to hit weak areas of a person's body, to injure or stop them, maybe even kill them. When you fight with your mind, your target is the weak spots of a persons psyche, their personality. That equates to their fears, insecurities, and character flaws. I…uh…groped her in a very sensitive area of her psyche, is the only way to explain it. I'm not especially proud of it, but that's what shocked her so badly, and, I suppose, sent her on her rampage." Tsukune was blushing slightly at the analogy he had used. "The slap was to break her focus, make her lose control of her Charm power, so she couldn't try again. I guess she lost control of her temper, too."

"So you're some kind of telepath?" asked Moka. "You can read minds?"

"Not directly, and not without permission."

"Not without permission?" Kurumu asked. "How's that?"

"I can only see what you put out there; like body language or thoughts consciously directed at me. People's thoughts and feelings generate energy that my brain picks up; I 'see' an aura around people that tells me if they're anxious, happy, angry, whatever. With humans, it's always faint and indistinct. Monsters have a different aura. I haven't figured out what exactly I'm seeing, but I knew Moka was holding in some serious energy when I first saw her."

"You mean in class?" Moka asked.

"No, before class on the path. You were riding your bike here. I felt your power leaking out and hid. It was totally unfamiliar to me, so I just watched you go by with my mind. It was kind of scary then, when I didn't know exactly what it was."

"And now?"

"Now, it's a lot scary. I wasn't ready for when your rosary came off. It was like was suddenly looking at the sun through a telescope. It _hurt_, a lot." Tsukune noted Moka's sad look. "I think I could handle it now, though, if you unsealed again. It's just like squinting or closing your eyes against a bright light. It won't hurt, but it will make me unable to 'see' the way I'm used to."

"There's more to it than that," Kurumu insisted. "You're not just a reader of auras. You can push when you need to, can't you?"

"It takes more effort and concentration, but yeah. I had easier access to your mind when I...um...fought back, because you had already made the connection. Normally, I can only make a gentle 'nudge', like a friendly suggestion." Tsukune was actually enjoying himself. It was a refreshing and unique experience to talk about himself in anything other than half-truths and outright lies.

"But what about Saizou? That was more than just a 'friendly suggestion'," Kurumu pressed, becoming more fascinated by her Destined One by the moment.

"Oh, that; it was a 'suggestion,' of sorts; I suggested that his mind see where I was a little differently than what his eyes wanted to tell it," Tsukune explained. "I adjusted his perception just a little."

"You put an illusion in his mind?" Kurumu asked in awe.

"Nothing so drastic; I can't make people see things that simply aren't there, or radically alter their perception of reality. I can make 'minor adjustments' to their awareness. When Saizou swung his fist, it was at a Tsukune standing about a meter away from where I really was."

"That's amazing," Moka breathed. "You can't be hit. Not by a fist, or weapon. Not even magic spells that have to be aimed will work on you!"

"Magic? There's no such thing as…" Tsukune trailed off as he looked from the vampire, to the succubus, and back to the vampire again. "Uh, never mind. No, if I'm not ambushed, and can focus, nothing directed at me specifically can hit me if I don't want it to."

Kurumu looked at him oddly. "Tsukune, sometimes you sound just like a human. 'No such thing as magic!'" she parroted. "You're definitely not human, but sound like you've never heard of monsters before. So, what exactly are you? And don't start about school rules! It should be obvious to you, by now, how well monsters follow rules."

Tsukune shifted uncomfortably under the expectant gazes of his lunch companions.

_**Heh**_, he thought sarcastically, _**isn't it obvious, by now? I'm a telepathic space alien from the second planet orbiting Beta Pictoris**_. Failing to notice the expanding eyes regarding him, he continued his thought. _**I'm shipwrecked here, posing as a human, on this chilly, primitive, backwater planet, waiting for rescue**_.

He finally perceived the wide-eyed, slack-jawed stares from Moka and Kurumu, realizing in horror that they had just heard his sarcastic internal monologue. They also heard his dismayed mental reaction echo in their minds.

_**Oh crap.**_

Continued…

* * *

Omake: Meet the Aonos Part 2

The craft carried four occupants. All from the second planet of the Beta Pictoris system, they were reptilian in nature, vaguely resembling bipedal chameleons, with bright green scales, and large, golden, slitted eyes. Their tails were reduced by eons of evolution to mere stumps, and they stood fully erect, at just over a meter and a half tall. There were two adults, male and female - a mated pair, and two juveniles, male and female - their pre-adolescent offspring. All four survived the impact, a tribute to the safety systems installed in modern spacecraft, but the juvenile female perished in the dark waters, sinking below the waves before she could be rescued by the adults. There was no time to mourn; that would have to come later. Survival came first. They had only time to salvage a few items, and deploy the emergency raft before the ship itself was also claimed by the Pacific.

The planet Earth, as it was dubbed by the natives, was neither uncharted nor unknown. Remote surveys had revealed the presence of the primitive civilization of humans, and after a nominal amount of data was logged, and samples gathered, the entire system was declared "off-limits" and quarantined pending the humans' development of a means of interstellar travel. Earth's first interstellar voyagers would be greeted in the black void of space, and introduced to the galactic community they were about to join. That, of course, was at least 75 of this planet's years in the future, and until then, Earth enjoyed the isolation of its status as a "cultural preserve".

The two adults assessed their situation. The tachyon array had been taken offline by the main power failures, so no faster-than-light distress call went out. The backup, a tightly focused beam of radio frequency was on its way to Beta Pictoris b at the speed of light, and they could expect rescue in a mere 63.4 of this planets years; sooner if by some fantastic fluke, a passing craft intercepted the transmission on its way to its ultimate destination. The adults were resigned to the fact that they would be spending the middle third of their expected life span on this chilly, backward, remote planet…


	9. Strange Calculations

Disclaimer: I own nothing, except the desire to entertain myself and others using other people's characters.

A/N: Tsukune may be a genius, but sometimes the poor boy is just a little slow on the uptake. You'll see what I mean...

Stranger In A Strange World  
Strange Calculations

"_Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?"  
~ Bible, Jeremiah xiii. 23_

* * *

Tsukune waited in nervous anticipation for a reaction other than blank stares from the girls. He had never been a strong telepathic transmitter, and certainly hadn't expected to start now, by accident. He looked anxiously at the two girls, like a condemned man awaiting pronouncement of a sentence. Kurumu was the first to break the silence.

"So, how did you end up _here_?" she asked.

Tsukune slumped in his chair. "I was kind of hoping that you'd think I was joking," he said. "Then we could all laugh at silly Tsukune, and go on with the school year as average first-year monsters." He sighed. "As for how I ended up here, we crash landed our ship into the Pacific. My parents and I are stranded here."

"No," Kurumu corrected, "how did you end up here, at Youkai? Surely you must have known what kind of school this was."

Tsukune chuckled, shaking his head. "It was kind of an accident. My mother and father sent me to all-boys' private schools until this year. I couldn't get into a private high school with my grades, and my parents didn't think I was ready for a free-for-all co-ed public school with humans, yet. Somehow, my father got me into Youkai, thinking it would be a good opportunity to continue to learn to blend in with humans in a more controlled environment than a public school."

Moka and Kurumu stared at him for a moment, then at each other, and burst out laughing. Tsukune squirmed uncomfortably, fully understanding the source of their amusement, but too embarrassed to share in it.

Moka, tears forming at the corners of her eyes, finally gasped, "They sent you _here_, to learn how to fit in with _humans_? When did you finally realize you weren't at a human school?"

"Not until you told me," Tsukune admitted glumly, casting a forlorn glance at Moka.

"And the students didn't seem a little..._strange_ to you?" Kurumu asked incredulously.

"I've been on this planet for ten years," Tsukune replied, "and _everybody_ still seems a little strange to me. You 'monsters' may think you're unique, compared to humans, but let me tell you honestly: from sixty-five light-years away, it's hard to tell the difference. You're _all_ weird."

Moka huffed in irritation. "I don't know whether to be insulted or comforted by that."

"The vampire's bruised superiority complex aside," injected Kurumu, "let's get to the important stuff: how does your species choose a mate?" She looked intensely at Tsukune. "And just how human is your form?"

Tsukune's eyes widened as his he felt his cheeks redden. "W-W-What?" he stammered, flummoxed by the succubus' single-mindedness. "It's totally human," he said, hoping she would brush off his failure to answer the first question. "When we realized we were stranded, my parents and I assumed human form at the molecular-genetic level, and only the doctors at Home can reverse it. I'll be a human, with a much-advanced brain, until I'm rescued, or I die."

"So we _are_ physically compatible!" Kurumu's gaze became keener. "You still haven't answered my first question, Tsukune." Before he could form any kind of coherent answer, the chimes announcing the resumption of classes rescued him.

* * *

Having successfully fled the cafeteria and started the walk to his math class, Tsukune tried to make sense of what had just happened. _I knew I was eventually going to be fully telepathic, like my parents_, he thought, _but what brought on the sudden projection of my thoughts to the girls?_ His father had impressed upon him that it would take supreme concentration and effort to make his inner thoughts more than a whisper to those he projected to, at first. It would, in time, become more natural as he moved into adulthood, but his first attempts would be faint and unsteady. What was the catalyst for his sudden proficiency? Did this extend to other areas of his innate abilities?

He shelved those thoughts for the moment, as his mind moved to another, more perplexing, problem. The female monsters had apparently selected him as a suitable potential _mate_. To be fair, he wasn't sure what the vampire wanted, other than a "friend with blood benefits", but the succubus made no secret of the fact that she considered them to already be mated. _I'm not even her species!_ Then again, neither were any of the rest of her harem of Charmed love slaves, and that fact seemed not to faze her in the least. Nor did it, for that matter, seem to bother any of the other monsters who drooled and fawned over the attractive human forms of the female students, most especially Moka's.

He felt a pang of sympathy as he considered Kurumu's situation. She was effectively alone here, seeking a mate to prolong her species for at least another generation. But is it really prolonging the species when you dilute the DNA? Are all monsters doomed to extinction by cross breeding? Was their ability to assume human form the result of ancestral cross pollination with _homo sapiens_? Of course, these thoughts brought him full circle to his immediate problem. _I'm human_, he thought in frustration, _in any way that might matter to Kurumu and her mating instincts. But then again, I'm not. My brain and faint memories of my original form tell me I can't be attracted to these soft, pink, squishy barbarians, but my glandular biology and hormones tell me I am!_

Finally walking into the math class and taking his seat on auto-pilot, Tsukune shook off his confused thoughts of genetics and physiology, and returned himself to reality. _It's forbidden_, he decided. _I'm a temporary visitor here; I will, in time, be rescued, and returned Home. It is forbidden for me to interfere in the development of human culture, or to contribute to the development of human society. It is absolutely forbidden for me to add to the gene pool of the human species. The penalty; remain abandoned, cast out from civilization, my original genome deleted from any and all databases from whence it may be restored. Face facts, Tsukune; you're alone, and you're going to have to stay that way, if you ever want to go Home again._

* * *

Moka was troubled. A large part of what troubled her was a growing sense of her own inadequacy. It had been easy to laugh at the thought that anyone could believe they were at a human school for more than a minute. And then to be lumped in with the humans, as if she had anything in common with those barbaric and inimical lower beings. Her irritation vanished, however, when the truth of situation slammed into her mind. It finally dawned on her what she had in common with humans; and orcs, succubae, werewolves, even rats; that she did not with Tsukune. They were born here, on Earth, and he was not. Despite that, he had made friends in the human world. He, for all his differences and isolation, could do what she could not.

The crushing loneliness that made her flee the human world, and enter Youkai suddenly seemed like such a small thing. Here was a young boy...no! A man! _No young boy survives ten years in the wilderness with his sanity and compassion intact._ A man, who knew for a fact that he would never have friends of his own kind on this planet, never find a mate, never really understand the people and culture around him; still outgoing, still making friends not only among the weak and unwary humans, but easily winning the affection of a succubus and friendship of a vampire.

_Why can't I be that strong?_ Moka thought. _Why couldn't I endure for three short years, a fraction of what this young man suffered for ten years?_

_**Because you hid your strength away behind the rosary, with me.**_ Inner Moka's voice sounded placidly in her mind. _**Isn't that what you wanted? To hide your power, so you wouldn't scare the sheep? So you could 'fit in'?**_

_That power came with too high a price! It was the pride and arrogance that drove others away, as much as the strength! Why couldn't we learn to be strong, without the arrogance?_

_**A good portion of that strength comes from the confidence that our pride and arrogance gives us. Without them, we are less. If the lower beings can't handle our power and pride, they're not worth our time.**_

_And what about a _higher_ being; what about a being so far beyond us that the difference between monster and human is meaningless to him? Is he worth our time?_

Stillness echoed in the halls of Moka's awareness, and she had no idea whether it meant she won or lost the silent debate with her inner self.

* * *

Tsukune found comfort in the study of mathematics. It was like an anchor, reminding him that despite his isolation from all things familiar, there were still universal constants that he could cling to. Of course, the humans were laughably primitive in the study and instruction of the subject, both in techniques and level of expertise. Initially, he had difficulty with the human version, as the very number system was alien to him. Humans used a ten-based number system, rather than the octal system that his species used. This was purely a product of different evolution; humans had ten digits on their hands, not eight. After that hurdle was cleared, however, solving math problems became an absent-minded, almost autonomous activity, like doodling. He had to diligently hold himself back in past years to avoid the scrutiny that would inevitably follow his use of multivariable integral calculus to solve middle school level math problems.

When Ririko Kagome introduced her math semester with a twelve-page exam, there was one exception to the general outburst of dismay that floated through the classroom. She had managed to arouse Tsukune's interest.

"We monsters," she said, "are generally either very poor, or rarely, very good at subjects like mathematics. We should all strive to be average, or just above, based on your aspirations in the human world." As she handed out stacks of exam papers to the front desk of each row, she continued. "This test is not counted toward your final grade, but it is for me to see where each of you stands on the subject, and determine who needs _special_ assistance to increase their scores. Please complete the exam to the best of your ability. I know for a fact that none of you will be able to solve the final three problems, but I want to see how you _attempt_ to solve them."

Tsukune flipped open the exam, scanning the last three questions. _Proof of the derivative of a scalar multiple; child's play_, he thought. _Volume of a solid derived by rotation of a continuous function about x; not bad_. The final problem had no place on a first-year college exam, let alone a high school evaluation test. _I'll have to actually open my eyes for this one_, he thought. _Determine the average magnitude of the encapsulated continuous vector field, where the direction and magnitude of the vector is a function of the underlying three-dimensional function of x and y…_

Tsukune thought for a moment, staring at the exam with his parents' admonishing voices ringing in his mind. _Don't excel. Be average. Fit in with the humans._

It was a small revelation, as revelations go, but no less profound for its brevity._ I'm not among humans any more, am I?_ Clicking out some lead on his mechanical pencil, he came to a decision, and started writing.

Continued…

* * *

Omake: Meet the Aonos Part 3

Having made landfall in a suitably isolated location, and destroyed the emergency raft, the family observed a brief ritual of mourning for the loss of the young female, then returned to the problem at hand. Reviewing their assets and liabilities, the male adult took stock of their supplies. The most valuable of their items, their hand held library computer, survived the impact, as had two of the surface survival kits. Accessing the reports of previous surveys, the male reviewed the structure and physiology of the native inhabitants in dismay. Not even close. There was no help for it, they would need to disguise themselves as humans at the genetic level, and the process would be painful.

Retrieving the programmable genoformer from the survival kit, he downloaded a recorded sample of the local human genome from the computer to the genoformer and started the process on himself. The genome transformer would extract a blood sample, and using the programmed genome, convert it into a retro-virus that would be injected back into the subject. The retro-virus went immediately to work on the nuclei of his cells, and six aching hours later, he was an adult human male of local tribal ancestry. The only feature of his original heritage that remained was the structure and function of his brain, and relative stage of physical development. He would retain the empathic and telepathic abilities common to his species, and all of the memories, knowledge, and intelligence that would be his family's only meaningful tools for survival on this distant backwater.

By the end of the day, their transformation into the Aono family was complete. Kouji Aono, 27 years of age, and his wife, Kasumi, 25 years of age, had a young son, Tsukune, 5 years old…


	10. Strange Magic

Disclaimer: I own nothing, except the desire to entertain myself and others using other people's characters.

A/N: Yes, I promise: the pace will pick up soon. And yes, I'm re-arranging or completely eliminating some of the events from anime canon.

Stranger In A Strange World  
Strange Magic

"_A__ny sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology."  
~ Larry Niven_

* * *

Kurumu's normally uncluttered mind was awash with uncharacteristically deep thoughts, as she shambled through the rest of her classes in a daze. If Tsukune had been merely a gifted human, there would be no difficulty; succubae had, through the ages, successfully mated with and had happy, if short, dalliances with human males. The men thus paired were short-lived, compared to the demonic life span of a succubus. Not to mention that a life spent mated to a succubus would be abbreviated, anyway, by "unusual stresses". Would she have to give him up to rescue from his home planet, or to the inevitable embrace of death? Did it really make a difference which of these eventually took him from her?

But her Destined One was not human, or a monster, nor was he anything in between. He was truly and completely alien to both the monster world and the human world. Did that mean he couldn't be her Destined One? Did Fate have dominion over a being from beyond the stars? Could Destiny really have reached out_ light-years_ to bring her mate to her? Was there _no one_ in either the monster or human world at least as suitable as Tsukune? Kurumu suddenly felt very small and insignificant as she stretched her mind around the unbelievable concept.

She was a succubus. She was a creature ruled, at least in part, by Fate, and she resolved to put her trust in it. Since childhood she had known that she would not choose her mate, but Destiny would thrust her together with Him, whoever he was. Her sense of insignificance faded into awe, as she mentally accepted the precious gift Fate had brought her. Three billion sentient males on this planet were rejected by Destiny, along with God-only-knew how many more tens-of-billions, in all of the populated cosmos, to bring her this _one_ man. That her Destined One came from across the galaxy would not be cause for shock, or disappointment among other succubae. On the contrary, she would be immortalized in succubus lore as the most fortunate and favored succubus in history, to have had Destiny reach so far to bring her perfect mate to her. It was a treasure she could not reject, could not lose, and a challenge she must not ignore. It was little wonder she couldn't Charm him; Destiny intended for her to _win_ a gift this precious from its grasp, to _earn_ this boon. And win Him she would.

* * *

Eleven-year-old Yukari Sendo was in foul mood. Ririko-sensei had publicly posted the results of her math evaluation test on the boards outside, but this is not what had raised Yukari's ire. Normally, she would be smugly pleased to see her score at the far right end of the boards, indicating that yet again, she had outscored the entire class. Today, as was her habit, she strolled down the line of boards, pointedly not even looking up for her results until she reached the last half of the final board. Reflexively looking up at the rightmost result slip, she stopped, blinking in stunned amazement. The final, and highest scored result slip did not bear her name. The source of Yukari's choler was the the lone slip of paper to the right of hers. Aono, Tsukune, 100.

_This can't be right_, she thought. Monsters, in general, were not all that bright to begin with. This, coupled with their general disdain for the distinctly human activities of studying and academics made it highly unlikely that any monster at Youkai could compete with her in the arena of scholastic achievement. This was something she knew with a certainty. She was smarter than these monsters because she shared so little of their heritage. She was a supernaturally gifted human, rather than magically concealed monster. Even if she wasn't a child genius, she would far outclass any monster of the same age or level of physical development in the pursuit of knowledge. She was _better_ than these poorly-disguised animals, and her intellect _proved_ it. Until now.

Somehow, some monster had cheated his way to the right of her. This Aono person had solved the entire twelve pages of mathematical problems, and if the whispers were true, had done so in under twenty minutes. She had taken the entirety of the forty-five minute period to complete her own test to a score of ninety-two, not even attempting the final question. She knew that the solution used a triple integration, but had no idea how to actually solve one. The thought that some ogre, golem, or lizard man had outperformed her in the study of mathematics was simply beyond her comprehension. Jaw and fists clenched tighter and tighter as she stared at the impossible displayed before her very eyes.

Still staring incredulously at the board, she felt slight nudge as someone took up a position to her right in front of the board. Looking up, she was momentarily horrified to see the ditzy succubus beside her. The blue-haired, freakishly endowed airhead had not managed to be here a single week before she revealed her monster form to the entire school. As she staggered a step back in disbelief, she realized that the succubus was attached to the arm of an unassuming and average-looking first-year boy, with the other pink-haired beauty of the first year on the other arm.

"Look, Tsukune! You got the highest score in the first year class!" Moka exclaimed. "We figured you'd be smarter than the average monster, but how do you ever get 100 on one of Kagome-sensei's tests? That's supposed to be impossible!"

Yukari's jaw and fists clenched even more tightly, as she realized that this stupendously average-looking monster was the 'Tsukune Aono' who had usurped her rightful place at the top of the academic heap.

Stepping in front of the dishonest, conniving cheat of a monster, she allowed all semblance of civility flee as poked the offending teen in the chest with her wand. "You're Tsukune Aono?" she demanded.

"Err...yes?" stammered a confused Tsukune. "I'm Tsukune Aono, first year, class three."

"I'm Yukari Sendo. I want to know how you managed to cheat on Kagome-sensei's test without getting caught. There's no way any monster outscored a genius like myself fair and square!"

Tsukune gaped at the young girl, shocked by the accusation and utter lack of courtesy. Her aura was, for all he could see, human, with no unique psychic or mental energies surrounding her physical form. The only emanation coming from her was a pulsating jealous wrath; she honestly wanted to believe her outlandish charge, but her anger was shot through with uncertainty, and fear that she could no longer claim to be the sole "super-genius of Youkai". Her attire was anything but "regulation", the only piece of which that was uniform was the short, plaid skirt that all the females wore. Despite the rules about hiding one's true form, it was obvious she considered herself a "witch", and was dressed precisely according to the stereotype, complete with a pointed, black hat.

Tsukune's stupor gave way to anger, but as he opened his mouth to protest, he was interrupted by Kurumu's hot retort. "What's wrong," she asked as she stared pointedly at Yukari's chest, "_little_ girl? Can't you handle a little competition in the brains department?"

Yukari flushed angrily, opening her mouth to counter, when Ririko Kagome's voice broke in. "Aono-kun! I'm very, _very_ impressed! Where ever did you learn how to solve that last problem?" Ririko stood behind Tsukune, with her hands on his shoulders, and was leaning in closely enough for him to smell her perfume.

Tsukune blushed slightly, "My parents were very disappointed with how slowly the human schools were teaching me, and decided to home school me themselves, in addition to what I was learning at school."

"Your parents must be very well educated, Tsukune-kun. Why did they even leave you in those human schools, if they could teach you so much better themselves?"

"They still wanted me to learn to fit in with humans, as much as possible. So human school was just that; a place for me to learn to be human. My parents wanted my _real_ education to be up to their standards." Again, Tsukune was pleased to be able to speak so candidly about himself without generating further awkward questions.

"Their standards were very high, indeed, from what I see. You are a gifted young man, Tsukune-kun."

Under her breath, Yukari muttered, "Gifted young cheater, she means."

Ririko frowned at the little witch, "No cheating occurred in _my_ classroom during that test, Sendo-chan. And you first-years will learn how unnaturally good I am at catching cheaters." Leaning in to whisper into Tsukune's ear, she continued, "I may call upon you to assist me with tutoring the other students. Is that acceptable Tsukune?"

Tsukune now flushed fully. "O-of course, Kagome-sensei!"

"In the classroom," she whispered, "it's Kagome-sensei. Anywhere else, you may call me Ririko-san, alright?" She gave his shoulders a slight squeeze, and strode off before he stammer out a response. "First Astronomy Club meeting tonight!" she called back over her shoulder as she left.

"_I_ still say you cheated," Yukari scowled. Pulling her eyelid down, and sticking out her tongue, she turned quickly to skip off.

Her turn, however, brought her face-to-face with three of her classmates, nearly colliding with them. They sneered at her for a moment, then addressed Tsukune. "We hear someone finally put the diaper-wearing little genius in her place; good work, Aono-kun!" His voice was, for Yukari's benefit, a mocking rather than congratulatory tone.

"Uh, thanks," Tsukune replied neutrally. These were definitely monsters in human form, and there was something...familiar about the aura they radiated. Like a faint, barely-remembered image from childhood.

"Not so high-and-mighty, now, are you little witch?" the apparent leader of the trio sneered. "Now maybe you'll learn some manners to go along with the dose of humility Aono's shown you."

The little girl smiled petulantly, and gave a negligent wave of her wand. There was a soft _pop_ of displaced air above her antagonist's head as a brass wash basin materialized, and fell solidly on his head. Grabbing his head and bellowing in pain, he yelled to his companions, "Smash her!" As one, they advanced on the witch, hostility flaring in their auras.

Tsukune was stupefied by Yukari's display, but Moka acted quickly to intervene, stepping in front of the girl. "I don't care what she did, but I won't let you act violently towards such a young girl!" she exclaimed. "Let it go, and walk away," she demanded. As she did so, Yukari hid behind Moka, gripping her jacket. Tsukune could see frustration boiling from the bullies, but their desire to crush the annoying little brat wasn't strong enough for them to raise their hands to the angry and beautiful Moka.

"We'll let this go, for the time being," the leader declared, as another of the trio interjected, "Your time will come, little witch-brat!" The three stalked off, obviously unsatisfied with the outcome of the confrontation. "Why they let that filthy race attend this academy is beyond me!" one called over his shoulder.

* * *

Later, Yukari joined Tsukune and Moka at their table in the cafeteria.

"Thanks Moka, those bullies would have torn me apart, if it weren't for you!" she gushed, her eyes alight with gratitude and admiration. "I've liked you right from the first day of school, but could never get your attention to introduce myself; you're smart, pretty, and the friendliest girl in first year!"

Moka's cheeks colored at the praise. "It's nothing, really. I couldn't just stand by and let those boys beat up on a little girl."

"It wouldn't kill you to be a little more courteous. Maybe if you had better manners, people wouldn't be so quick to anger with you." Tsukune broke in with a quiet voice.

"The last thing I need, desu," Yukari retorted, "is lessons on manners from _cheaters_!" She scowled at Tsukune petulantly.

"I didn't cheat! It just so happens that my race is inhumanly gifted in math and sciences. I have to cheat just to try to be average. Have you ever tried to hide your intelligence, just to fit in?"

"Why would I hide who I am? I don't need friends of lower intelligence! I'm perfectly happy without friends from among lower beings!"

"Lower beings?" Tsukune focused his gaze on her like a laser. "I've heard that before, on this campus." Moka's eyes shot open as if she had been slapped. Tsukune was too intent on Yukari to notice Moka's reaction to his words. "I seem to remember the Biology Club saying something about lower beings. Is every monster here so convinced that they're the pinnacle of Earthly evolution? Does that make it alright to dissect, beat up, kill, or torment someone? Is someone a lower being just because they're different? You may be smart, but you're weak and fragile, like a human; like me. Is it just intelligence that makes a creature worthy of respect? How about strength? The ability to fly? How about it Yukari? What's your brilliant theory on what makes a being higher or lower?"

Yukari looked down at her hands, folded in her lap over her wand. "I don't know," she said quietly, almost in a whisper.

Tsukune's gaze softened as he said, "Listen, I know for a fact I'm smarter than you." He held up a hand to hold off her peevish retort. "In terms of knowledge in math and sciences, and raw problem-solving ability, I'm smarter than any monster on this campus, or any human outside it. But, that doesn't make me better than any of them, just different. Look at you. You waved your wand-thingy, and made that washtub appear out of thin air! Was that magic? That's a power I definitely do not have, but I have others. Is there a point system? Magical powers are worth 'x' points, and reading auras is worth 'y' points?"

"I don't know," she whispered again.

Tsukune gathered his tray, and stood up to leave. "While you figure it out, here's something to consider: there's another group of creatures that forms itself into groups, and comes up with excuses why their group is superior to the others, and entitled to abuse them."

Yukari simply looked up questioningly.

"Humans."

* * *

That afternoon, the Newspaper Club convened for their first editorial meeting. Joining Yukari Sendo and the mysterious Mizore Shirayuki were two new members. One, a survivor of the "Swim Club Incident", was a fifteen-year-old boy by the name of Saruwatari Junichiro. His ash-gray hair was slicked back with a few spikes standing up at the front. His slight frame and large brown eyes gave him the look of boy a couple of years too young to be starting high school. The other latecomer was also a first-year student. Hatori Asuka was a tall, well-developed girl with amber eyes, and green hair. As usual, Shizuka turned the meeting over to Gin and another sempai they were unfamiliar with.

Gin gestured to the stranger, a petite, auburn-haired girl with some sort of staff or stick slung casually across her shoulders. "This is Keito," Gin said, "of the Student Police. She has a request of the Newspaper Club, and _naturally_, we will do everything we can to assist her. Keito." He waved her to the front center of the club room.

"We at the Student Police," started Keito, "have received a very disturbing report. There are rumors, only rumors, mind you, that a human has somehow infiltrated the first year class at this sacred monsters-only haven. We have requested of the Chairman, and received, the student records of any students who have failed to report their monster nature on their applications. Hiding your monster nature as a matter of practice to live in the human world, and hiding it from the Administration of this Academy are two completely different things. Here are the records in question." She gestured to a small pile of file folders.

"We require the assistance of the Newspaper club to investigate and verify the monster nature of the students who failed to report it on their applications. There are only eight students who have not correctly completed their applications, and you will investigate these students and help us complete their record entries. Any student for whom you cannot verify a monstrous or supernatural nature, will obviously be suspected as our rumored human infiltrator, and will be questioned by us." Without further elaboration, Keito strode from the room, leaving Gin to his club.

Picking up the first folder, Gin read the name. "Akashiya, Moka. I will personally see to this one," he said with a sly grin as he set the folder aside. "Next is: Aono, Tsukune. Mizore, would you be so kind as to apply your unique interests to revealing the nature of this second student?"

Mizore simply nodded, shifting the ever-present lollipop in her mouth as she took the folder from Gin.

"As for the rest of you, we have a newspaper to publish."

Continued...


	11. Strange Awakenings

Disclaimer: I own nothing, except the desire to entertain myself and others using other people's characters.

A/N: A little bit of a delay for this update, but I hope it's worth the wait...

Stranger In A Strange World  
Strange Awakenings

"_Anger is a wind which blows out the lamp of the mind."  
Robert Green Ingersoll__  
_

* * *

It was official. Today was the worst day of Yukari Sendo's eleven-year existence on planet Earth. First, the upstart Aono outscores her in the academic arena, and then proceeds to tear her superior self-image to shreds in a few short sentences, comparing her to _humans_ in the process. What should have been a happy and cordial introduction to the radiant Moka Akashiya was turned into an awkward and demeaning non-defense of her obvious supremacy. The afternoon was somewhat salvaged by the moderately satisfying course of magical pranks and torments she visited on the hapless Tsukune, but even that couldn't lift her spirits very far. Sadly, she realized that a mind like Tsukune's should have been enlisted as an ally and friend against the animals of Youkai, but her reflexively poor manners and confrontational attitude had sabotaged her, yet again. At that point, she believed the capstone to her monumentally bad day was the enlistment of the Newspaper Club as an intelligence apparatus of the feared and hated Student Police. _Tomorrow_, she thought as she walked to the dorm, _I'll try to at least be civil to Tsukune. Moka seems to like him, so he can't be all bad. Besides, we geniuses _should_ be able to get along better than the animals that surround us._

That was ten minutes ago. Now, Yukari was facing the possibility that there might not be a tomorrow for her. True to their previous threats, her three antagonistic classmates surprised her on the path, quickly relieving her of her wand and dragging her to a clearing next to a swamp. Helpless, she watched as they shed their human disguises, turning into two-meter tall lizard men, complete with trouser-splitting tails, razor-sharp talons, and very obviously carnivorous teeth. They meant to kill her, and it was evident that they had no intention of using the swamp to dispose of her body. Salivating in anticipation, they advanced on her as she screamed in abject terror.

* * *

"She's just lonely," Moka pressed, as she, Kurumu, and Tsukune strolled along the path to their first Astronomy Club orientation, debating the merits of Tsukune's diatribe against the young witch. "Witches are treated badly by both monsters and humans. They're sometimes referred to as a 'border race'. They're essentially human enough to be outcast by most monsters, but gifted with enough power that they find it very difficult to co-exist with humans. You can't imagine what it must be like for her."

"Can't I?" Tsukune asked pointedly.

"Okay, maybe you can, but keep in mind that's she's still just a child, for all of her intelligence."

Tsukune sighed. "I guess I could have cut her some slack on that basis. I still forget that even though I'm a human fifteen-year-old, I have closer to twenty years of memories and emotional growth. I'll talk to her tomorrow."

Kurumu's brow furrowed in thought. "How does that work? You said you're physically human, and you look like any other fifteen-year-old. How do you have twenty years of memories?"

"My race is longer-lived than humans. On average, we live about 190 of your years. As hatchlings, we develop rapidly, typically starting our schooling after three of your years."

"Wait a minute," Kurumu interrupted. "Hatchlings? Your species lays eggs?" she asked in disbelief.

"Um…yeah," Tsukune looked nervously at the two girls. "Does it bother you that I'm that different?"

"Pfft," Kurumu dismissed. "That only makes you different from humans. Remember where you are, sweetie."

"Oh yeah, I keep forgetting. Anyway," he continued, "I was twelve of your years old when we got stranded here. That's about one-sixteenth of my normal life span, and about one-quarter of the way to full maturity. When we transformed ourselves, I was changed into a human at about the same stage of development; a five-year-old. That was ten years ago. My memories and mental abilities weren't affected by the change, so, I'm actually a twenty-two-year-old in a fifteen-year-old body." Tsukune paused, looking around intently. "Something's wrong."

"What do you…?" Moka was cut off by a shrill scream shattering the twilight's calm.

"Yukari!" Tsukune blurted, bounding into the woods. Moka and Kurumu ran after him, confused by the apparent clairvoyance of their friend, but motivated by the urgency in his tone. Tsukune had felt the waves of panic coming from the young witch, even before her scream pierced the early evening air, and burst into action without a second thought. After a short but frantic sprint, Tsukune skidded to a stop at the edge of a clearing, almost getting bowled over by the girls behind him. A knot of primal fear formed in his guts as he surveyed the scene.

A trio of _salthis_ in the remnants of human clothing was advancing on the young girl, who was cowering at the base of a large tree. At least, that's what they looked like. On Home, the _salthi_ was a large predatory animal, somewhat similar to the now-extinct velociraptor of this planet's ancient history. It was a fearsome hunter, often preying on any living thing that was unfortunate enough to falter into its territory. Here on Earth, only the few species of man-eating sharks shared the same notoriety and ability to instill instinctive fear into sentient beings. For an instant, Tsukune thought he was seeing actual _salthis_, until he saw the differences. Their stance, while still poised in a predator's pre-attack crouch, was naturally more upright, and the arms and shoulders more resembled a human's. Screwing up his courage, he coiled himself to try to distract the beasts from their prey.

Pushing past him, Moka ran toward Yukari, oblivious to the danger she was rushing headlong into. Tsukune cried out to stop her, but was ignored in her haste to help the little witch. Resigned to his fate, Tsukune followed, only two steps behind her, while Kurumu flared her wings, taking to the air as she extended her talons. Moka only had time to snatch Yukari up and away from the advancing lizard men before she was bowled over by Tsukune as he interposed himself between the predators and their prey. As the three tumbled into a heap, and audible metallic snap was heard, as Moka's rosary came off in his hand, releasing her hidden self.

Tsukune braced himself for the pain and pressure he knew was imminent, not even realizing his back had been laid open by the talons of one of the lizard men. As she transformed, however, he was puzzled by the sensation of her aura washing over him. It was not a blinding pain, or raging fire in his mind, but a persistent pressure, as if her energy was filling his synaptic pathways in ways and combinations that had never been exercised. The feeling of having his mind engorged with her power would have been almost pleasant, if it wasn't so unfamiliar and unsettling. Handing Yukari off to a low-swooping Kurumu, he finally regained his feet, watching the silver-haired vampire dispatch two of the charging lizard men with easy strokes of her long legs. She had almost fully recovered from the second of her powerful kicks, when the third lizard man lunged at her back, almost upon her.

"No!" Tsukune bellowed, as he lashed out at the monster with his mind, in adrenaline-charged panic and haste. Too late to moderate his assault, he felt the energy flood from his brain like a broken fire hydrant. Although he had little to no experience as a telepathic projector, he had reflexively lashed out with the hope of temporarily disrupting the monsters brain functions and incapacitating him. Despite his intent, however, what he unleashed was a massive surge of uncontrolled psi energy, fueled by Moka's unsealed demonic energy, directly into the fragile brain of the attacking lizard man. The lizard man, in mid-lunge, went immediately slack, and crashed to the ground, sliding to a halt just short of Moka's feet. Moka wound up for another kick, only to be stopped just in time by Tsukune's cry of "Wait!"

Tsukune ran to the side of the fallen lizard man, cursing his lack of control and carelessness. Nausea gripped him as he took in the trickles of blood from the nostrils and unseeing eyes, and the sagging, open mouth with its forked tongue lolling out the side. Kneeling, he felt for a pulse, and probed for an aura, or any energy that would indicate sentient life. The fact that he felt a pulse and shallow breathing made him feel worse than if the monster were simply dead. Technically alive, the higher brain was devoid of any activity. No memories, no emotions, no thoughts came to Tsukune's awareness from the comatose reptilian. He was simply…gone. Tsukune had wiped all traces of sentience and life from conscious and subconscious mind of the hapless creature, leaving only an empty vessel operating its autonomic nervous system. Turning, he noisily emptied the contents of his stomach onto the forest floor.

Kurumu, meanwhile, had landed with Yukari, arriving just in time to see Tsukune be sick. Hesitantly, she asked, "Is that lizard man…dead? Did Tsukune kill him?"

"No." Moka was now crouching down, checking the lizard's vitals. "He's breathing, and has a pulse. He's certainly not dead."

"No," Tsukune said in a shaky, haunted voice, "he's worse than dead. He's gone. His brain has been wiped clean. There's nothing in there but emptiness." He stifled another gag. "Now, he's just a piece of meat that happens to be able to breath and pump blood through its body."

Kurumu shuddered, involuntarily hugging Yukari closer to her as she digested Tsukune's words. "We can't just leave him like that, can we?" she asked.

Moka's face remained icily calm. "No," she said, "We can't," as she reached for the monster's head. Simultaneously, Tsukune clenched his eyes shut and turned his head, while Kurumu looked away, pulling Yukari's face to her chest. Moka seized the head, and wrenching it sideways, cleanly broke the monster's neck with sickening, wet _pop_. Checking the vitals again, she rolled the body into the swamp, and stood.

Tsukune was suddenly aware of her penetrating gaze, and opening his eyes, got to his feet. He looked at her guiltily, "I'm sorry you had to do that. I've…I've never killed anything before."

Moka's eyes narrowed. "That's not what has me perturbed at the moment, Tsukune." She looked pointedly at the three parallel gashes on his back. "I believe we've already discussed the relative merits of keeping your blood on the _inside_ of you, haven't we?"

Tsukune's met her eyes firmly. "Sorry, but if the other Moka insists on running headlong into danger like she did tonight, I will _never_ be more than three steps behind her."

Moka's gaze was unreadable as she took the rosary from Tsukune's grasp. "Just remember that my human form is an illusion, while yours is a reality," she said, as she snapped the rosary back into place on her choker, and sagged against him in exhaustion.

* * *

It was only a short while later that the four were in the classroom set aside for the Astronomy Club's use. They had decided that Yukari should not walk back to the dorm alone, and would attend their club meeting with them. After Moka had rested a little, she did her best to clean the lizard man's blood off her hands, and they hiked to the academy building in sober silence. Ririko was waiting impatiently for her wayward club, and was about to start into a fifteen-minute lecture on the courtesy of punctuality. All thoughts of a lecture or meeting were dismissed, however, when she saw Tsukune's torn and bloody jacket. Officially postponing the club's orientation until tomorrow, she retrieved a first aid kit from the infirmary, handing it to Kurumu with a sympathetic glance at Tsukune. Youkai Academy was a violent place, and she had seen more than her fair share of lacerations and puncture wounds.

"At least," she told him, "you're alive. Be thankful for that."

Tsukune simply nodded glumly, not feeling very thankful at the moment. As Kurumu started to clean up the wounds on his back, Moka excused herself to finish washing her hands. Long minutes of awkward silence followed, broken only by the occasional hiss of pain from Tsukune as Kurumu continued her ministrations. Finally, Yukari broke the oppressive silence.

"What _was_ that, Tsukune? I've never seen any kind of magic that would do that," she asked in a quiet voice.

"Please, Yukari, can this wait?" he asked. "I'm not really in a mood to talk about it right now."

"Alright, but just talk to me, please? About anything?" she pleaded.

Tsukune sighed, realizing he wanted an end to the gloomy stillness almost as much as she did. "Okay, Yukari. Tell me about magic. What is it? I've seen you do your spells and tricks, but I still have no idea what's actually happening when you do. It's not telekinesis; I'd be able to feel that."

Yukari brightened almost instantly at his interest in her favorite subject. "It's simple, really. I borrow energy and put it to use."

"What kind of energy? Like gravity and electrical fields?"

"Some of it," she nodded, "I'll use any kind of energy in the environment. Mostly, though, it's elemental life energy, a tiny bit, from each and every living thing in the area. Never enough to harm, but gathered up in one ball and focused properly, you can make some astounding things happen. And there are limits to what you can do, based on what energy you're using."

Tsukune was now fully engaged in their conversation, not even noticing when Moka returned to the room. "How is magic limited by what energy you use?" he asked.

Yukari thought for a moment. "Well, I couldn't conjure any water with energy borrowed from the heat of a fire, or drain someone's life energy when all I've gathered up is life energy from around me. Things like that. You have to remember that it isn't physics. E _does not_ equal em cee squared. We can't even quantify it, like you would volts for electricity."

"Okay, but _how_ do you tell the energy what to do? An uncontrolled release of energy is called an explosion for a reason."

"That part, I do with my mind. My wand serves as a focus for the energy I've gathered, and a point of release, when I've formed the idea of what I want to accomplish with it."

"But that's telekinesis, isn't it?" Tsukune pressed.

"Only if it's _my_ energy performing the work; remember, I'm _borrowing_ the energy, and channeling it…"

Whatever else she said was lost as something clicked, almost audibly in Tsukune's mind. _Borrowing the energy…that was it!_ he thought. _Somehow, I absorbed the energy from Moka's insane aura, and released it as my own. This is…frightening. And why was it so painful the first time; like a blowtorch inside my head? The second time wasn't even all that painful, just…pressure_. Tsukune wracked his brain for some sort of physical analogy, finally deciding on…_sex_. _Human females have this…hymen thing, which tears the first time they have intercourse. The first time is supposedly very painful, but after that; no more pain. Is that what happened to my telepathic neural pathways?_

He was roused from his musings by Yukari snapping her fingers in front his blank face. "Earth to Tsukune! Earth to Tsukune! Come in!" she teased.

Blinking and shaking his head, he said, "Huh? Oh, sorry Yukari. You were saying?"

"It can wait," she sighed. "I have to say one thing, though; thanks for saving my life tonight, both you and Moka. Especially after I was such a brat to you this afternoon. Can you ever forgive me?"

Tsukune allowed a wisp of a smile to show. "Of course I can. I have my own apology to make; I shouldn't have been so hard on you at lunch today, and I'm sorry for that. How about we start over? Aono, Tsukune, fifteen, class one-three!" He nodded his head in a sketch of a bow; Kurumu was still just finishing up on his bandages.

Yukari bowed low with a giggle. "Sendo, Yukari, eleven, class one-two!"

"I'm sure we'll be great friends!" Tsukune smiled genuinely.

"A pair of geniuses like us? We'll be partners! Together we'll bridge the gulf between species!"

"Yeah!" Tsukune cheered.

"We'll smash down social taboos!"

"Yeah!"

"We'll have all-night threesomes with the vampire!"

"Yea…WHAT???" Tsukune, Kurumu, and Moka all goggled at the little witch in shock.

"Um...just kidding?" she said with an impish grin.

* * *

That night, in the silence of his room, Tsukune woke twice, drenched in cold sweat. He had the same nightmare both times: he dreamed that he was blind, deaf, dumb, and paralyzed, but aware; a prisoner in his own non-functioning body.

Continued…

* * *

Omake: Meet the Aonos Part 4

The family's insertion into Japanese society was certainly not seamless, or without its terrifying moments, but neither was it a disaster. It was of course, hardest on Tsukune. His parents struggled with the knowledge that the wait for their rescue would probably exceed their remaining life span as humans, and eventually made peace with the idea that they would spend the rest of their natural lives on Earth. The boy was young enough that rescue was probable within his lifetime. His education as a human took place along side constant reminders of his true heritage. Guilt for isolating their child between worlds was a constant companion to the parents, assuaged only by the hope that he, at least, could eventually be returned Home.

In time, the family Aono settled into a normal routine. Kouji was a moderately successful consulting engineer; Kasumi took care of the boy and the house. Tsukune worked very hard to be average, to be invisible. He had a pet chameleon that he envied above all things for its ability to blend itself so easily into the scenery. His parents kept him in all-boys schools, knowing that a normal courtship and lifetime pair-bonding was simply impossible for him. He loved the forests and mountains of their little corner of the planet; but would never get within 100 meters of the ocean again if he could help it. He still had occasional nightmares about chilly dark waters of the Pacific, and how they claimed his beloved little sister.

Finally, after ten years of life as a human on Earth, Tsukune is enrolled in Youkai Academy…


	12. Strange Rationalization

Disclaimer: I own nothing, except the desire to entertain myself and others using other people's characters.

A/N: I hope the drop-off in reviews isn't because I'm losing readers for some reason or another. I'd rather have one review telling me if I'm screwing things up, and how to fix it, than fifty "Great fic!" reviews. Just sayin'.

Stranger In A Strange World  
Strange Rationalization

"_Qui desiderat pacem praeparet bellum."__  
(Let him who desires peace prepare for war).  
~ Latin Proverb_

* * *

Moka and Kurumu were joined by Yukari to wait for Tsukune outside his dorm the next morning. As if anticipating his need for calm, friendly support, their customary physical greetings were somewhat subdued. Kurumu, to Moka's amazement, gave him a decidedly chaste embrace, whispering in his ear, "Are you alright?"

Tsukune broke the hug gently with a quick "Never better," and stepped back, addressing all three of the girls. "Look, I know you're all worried about me after last night, but it's okay, really," he said, with a smile that didn't _quite_ reach his eyes. "It happened, and I have to deal with it. Let's go to class!" he declared, as if closing any further discussion on the subject. Holding his arms out in anticipation, he waited for Moka and Kurumu to take up their customary positions before starting the walk to classes.

Yukari, not wanting to be left out, jumped on his back to be piggy-backed, at least part of the way. "I want to transfer to the Astronomy Club with you, ~_desu_! Do you think Miss Kagome will allow it?" she asked.

"All you can do is ask," replied Tsukune. "I have the idea that you'll have a harder time getting _out_ of the Newspaper Club than _into_ the Astronomy Club. It looks like these clubs take membership numbers seriously."

"No worries there," Yukari said, "they'll probably be glad to get rid of the 'barely-a-monster witch-brat'"

"Their loss!" Tsukune encouraged.

* * *

That night, the Astronomy Club finally had their first orientation meeting. After introducing their new member, Yukari, Ririko explained how to set up a reflector telescope, and aim it according to the star charts; how to preserve their night vision while reading the charts using red nail polish on their flashlights, and how to set up where the day's heat wouldn't interfere with the night's stargazing. It was all very basic to Tsukune, who was naturally already a skilled amateur stargazer.

The only one completely lost was, of course, Kurumu, who asked, "When do we start to learn about predicting our futures?"

Yukari burst out in a peal of laughter as Ririko nearly fell to the floor in shock. "No, no, no, dear," she said, stifling a giggle of her own. "This is _Astronomy_, the study of stars and the universe around us, not _Astrology_! This is science, not superstition! Are you sure you're in the right club?"

Kurumu looked like she'd been mooned by a minotaur. "S-s-science?" she stammered. "Maybe I am in the wrong club, after all."

"Don't worry," offered Tsukune, "I'll help her out!"

"I'm sure I can muddle through with Tsukune's help! Please let me stay!"

Ririko looked thoughtful for a moment, "As long as you're not too much of a burden to him..."

Tsukune shook his head emphatically, "It would be a pleasure to help her, Kagome-sen...." noting her disappointed look, he amended hastily, "Ririko-san."

"I'm glad to see you remembered our discussion, Tsukune," she said.

A short while later, about a ten-minute hike from the school, the Astronomy Club was setting up their telescopes for the first time on a grassy hill. Ririko looked on as Yukari and Moka set up their telescope, leaving Tsukune and Kurumu more or less alone on their own setup.

"Will we be able to see your home from here?" Kurumu asked quietly.

"No," Tsukune replied, "The constellation Pictor is below the southern horizon. You'd have to be as far south as...um...Okinawa to be able to see it. If we _were_ in Okinawa, though, I could point to it even if you spun me around blindfolded, first."

Kurumu gazed in silence at the starry panorama as Tsukune oriented the telescope on Polaris.

"There," he said, "that's the North Star. It doesn't move around much in the sky, so it's been used as a reference point for navigation for hundreds of years. Have a look."

Kurumu peered into the eyepiece, gasping in surprise. "It's so clear! These things really work don't they?" She glanced at Tsukune, and returned to the eyepiece. Tsukune smiled patiently, as if waiting for Kurumu to notice something. She did. "Wait a minute...it's faint, but there's another star there! Are they really that close to each other?"

"Congratulations, Kurumu, you've just found Polaris B," Tsukune said. "There are actually three stars in that system all locked into orbit around each other."

Ririko had strolled over to see the source of awed outburst. She and Tsukune exchanged small smiles as they watched Kurumu peering into the telescope, gushing about the beauty of the heavens.

"I think she'll be just fine here." Tsukune said quietly, as Ririko nodded in approval.

* * *

Tsukune was glad to finally have something of a routine established. Okay, it was a decidedly _weird_ routine, but a routine nonetheless.

It started with his morning shower and some meditation, something his parents had told him would help with the growth of his telepathic prowess. He had been slacking off lately, but now he meditated for at least a half hour each day, with an almost furtive urgency. After a quick breakfast, he would exit the dorm, to be greeted by the girls. On the agenda: partial exsanguination, as Moka took her breakfast, followed by brief suffocation, as Kurumu added her greeting to the festivities, and finally, mortification, as Yukari contributed yet another pathologically age-inappropriate lewd proposition to the proceedings.

At the Academy building, of course, his class schedule determined his routine. Lunch was, as always, with the girls. At various times throughout the day, Tsukune would try to find his "secret admirer", as he wryly dubbed the vague presence. A few days after the "incident", he started to feel a familiar unease, like he was being watched. In any other time and place, he might have blown it off as simple paranoia, but he had learned quickly that lapses in attention here at Youkai carried grave consequences. Whoever it was, they were _good_. He could feel the aura of intense curiosity and interest directed at him, but could never pinpoint a location for its source. His secret admirer had to be a very disciplined and composed individual, to be able to hide from his senses. Tsukune kept getting a sense of icy calm, of a mind given to cool rationalization. That, or his secret admirer was clinically insane, a possibility he chose _not_ to rule out, given his current environment.

It was his routine for afternoon free period, however, that was a source of deep frustration for his trio of admirers. Slipping away from class as quickly as the bell allowed, he would immediately immerse himself in the crowd of wandering students, losing himself in the pack until he could sneak down a flight of stairs toward the basement. Despite Moka, Kurumu, and Yukari's best efforts, they could not follow him, nor could they find him once he was lost to them. It worried Moka and Kurumu especially that he was keeping some kind of secret from them. After all, they already knew the secret of his true heritage. What _more_ could he need to keep from them, once _that_ particular cat was out of the bag? When they did get together before school and at lunch, their repeated questions were brushed off with a brusque "It's personal." This routine carried on for several days before the girls called a "council of war" during yet another Tsukune-less free period.

"He's avoiding us deliberately. I know he hears us calling him, but he just ignores us." Moka opened the discussion. "What's he doing that's so personal he can't let us in on it?"

"Well," Yukari said, "what's changed? There has to be something that triggers a change in behavior. Is there something significant that happened to him recently?"

"The lizard man," Moka and Kurumu concluded in stereo. "He can't be as fine with it as he's letting on," Kurumu added.

Yukari looked puzzled. "Why not? He's obviously a very powerful monster, with some sort of devastating mental abilities. Surely, he has to have some experience using them on other beings."

"That's just it, Yukari," Kurumu said, "he doesn't. When he first got here he was _not_ that strong a telepath. He was very skilled, and controlled with the low level of power he had, but that was it. He's actually a very kind and modest person, who probably hasn't actually hurt anything in his life. When he fought off my Charm, he actually _apologized_ for the way he did it."

"So what happened that night?" asked Moka. "Where did he get the power to wipe out an entire mind?" She looked at Kurumu. "Have you ever destroyed a mind like that, or caused enough physical damage to a brain to make a victim bleed?"

"No way," Kurumu shook her head. "You just don't generate that kind of energy inside your own brain. At least no monster _I_ know of does," she said carefully, glancing at Yukari.

"I have it!" Yukari exclaimed triumphantly. "Remember how we were talking about magic, and he zoned out for a bit? It was right when I was describing how we witches borrow energy from around us. He was figuring things out right there!"

Moka and Kurumu looked at the little witch, then at each other, and back to Yukari. "Still not getting it," said Kurumu.

Yukari looked pointedly at Moka's rosary. "You know where the energy came from, don't you?"

Moka gasped and clutched her rosary. "You can't be serious!"

"A vampire's Youki is a maelstrom of psychic and demonic energy, spilling out like an overflowing dam. What makes you think he couldn't make use of at least some of it? How much of it would he need to be able to do some serious damage to an unprotected mind?"

"Not much at all," Moka supplied. "My other self wouldn't even miss the amount."

Kurumu turned to Moka in horror. "Thank the Fates I didn't try to Charm him _after_ the first time he uncorked you!" She looked at Yukari. "My Charm is a telepathic ability. I know for a fact that we never generate that kind of energy. His mind has relied on finesse and skill up until now. For him, trying to control that kind of power had to be like trying to divert a river with a pail! He's got to be confused, and little scared of his own abilities right now."

"But," asked Moka, "_what_ is he doing, all by himself? Spending an hour a day bawling his eyes out? Trying to learn to control it? Is he bleeding off excess energy somewhere, like blowing off steam?"

"We ask him when we find him in his hidey-hole, where ever that is," Yukari said. "Once we corner him in his 'safe place', he'll be surprised enough to talk to us, I think."

"Or surprised enough to stir-fry our brains," Kurumu muttered. "We need to be very careful here. Besides, how do we find him? What do we do that we haven't tried?"

"We tag him," said Yukari. "He said he can't really sense magical energy, so I'll enchant a personal item, and plant it on him tomorrow while we walk to school. If he doesn't leave the building, I'll find him."

* * *

Tsukune was accustomed to figuring things out by himself. After all, it wasn't as if he could talk to the guidance counselor at his middle school about the confusion of being an extra-terrestrial in a human body. This, he reasoned, was no different. He had found the all-but-abandoned basement library pretty much by accident. While he was sure the girls would be supportive and kind, he was equally certain that they just wouldn't understand what he was going through. The first day he ditched his entourage, and found the dusty room, he was in fact looking for a place to ponder, and privately berate himself. _Why did this happen? How could I be so careless? What do I do now?_ At first, the questions he asked himself were rhetorical, and he thought, unanswerable. Then, the problem-solving part of his mind woke up and shook him from his self pity.

_Things happen for reasons_, he thought. _This is just another exercise of cause and effect; of root cause and countermeasure identification. There's a logical, rational way to deal with this, and make sure it doesn't happen again. _Step one; define the problem and gather your data. Finally, he took stock of his surroundings, noticing that he was in some kind of dusty, abandoned library annex. It was perfect. For the next several days, he took his afternoon free period among the dimly lit stacks, studying like a being possessed. Centuries-old tomes on witchcraft and magic shared shelf space with more recent catalogs of monster powers and abilities. Voraciously, he pored over any texts he could find on monster biology, magic, telepathic powers, even monster philosophy. As he did, his mind attempted to rationalize the events of the fateful night on which he took the life of a sentient.

He also exercised the supernormal abilities of his mind. He no longer had access to Moka's massive reservoir of energy, but his exposure to her demonic aura opened pathways in his brain that weren't supposed to for years to come. The auras of the monsters he saw were sharp, bright, and clear. The surface thoughts of those around him could be immediately accessed with the simple act of turning his attention to them, deeper thoughts still required effort, but were his for the taking if he wanted them. This was how he knew exactly when Yukari had "tagged" him somehow, and decided it was time to rejoin his friends. He was seated at a table facing the door when he sensed the familiar presence of the girls, and called out to them, just as Yukari reached for the doorknob.

"_**Come on in. I've been waiting for you guys,"**_ he sent his thought to them.

Yukari gasped in surprise, and opened the door, peeking into the room warily. "Tsukune? Are you okay?"

"Never better; and this time, I actually mean it," he replied. "Come in, we should all talk."

As they filed in, Moka locked her eyes on his in irritation. "You had us worried, you know. We had no idea what you were up to, or why you couldn't share it with your friends."

"Yeah," Kurumu added, "you know we…"

"I know," Tsukune held up a hand to interrupt. "You wanted to tell me it's not my fault, or that it couldn't be helped, and that you would be my friends, no matter what. It's sweet, really, but I needed this time to myself to work things out, before I came to my friends."

Yukari, looking at the stacks of books on the table, asked "So, is this part of your 'self-therapy', or whatever it is you're doing?" She could see some of the books were on witchcraft and magic, and, surprisingly, a volume on Charm and enslavement, written by the succubus Loviatar in 1154. "This is some very potent stuff you're reading. Are you a magic user now, on top of it all?"

"Hardly; but the principles of conjuration and the control of magic apply very well to telepathy, also, wouldn't you say?"

"Come on, Tsukune," Kurumu broke in. "You may seem very level and calm, but we know you're still bothered by what happened!"

"Of course, I am! But part of what I had to accept was the death of that particular monster was inevitable. I have to believe that his passing was the ultimate result in a chain of cause and effect. I was a link in the chain, but not the root cause. Once I worked that out, it became easier to deal with."

"So what is the root cause?" Yukari asked.

"Perception of weakness and vulnerability," Tsukune answered without hesitation.

"Huh?" Kurumu grunted. "You're going to need to explain _that_."

"Okay. Moka? Why did we kill the lizard man? Because he was attacking us, and I wasn't strong enough or skillful enough to stop him without killing him."

Moka nodded, "Go on."

"Why was he attacking us? Because he perceived no consequence in doing so. And why is _that_? Two reasons; one, he didn't see us as a serious threat; two, he knew the school would accept his behavior."

"Wait a minute," Kurumu said. "The teachers don't just let the students kill each other here! It isn't like this is a human school in East Los Angeles!"

"But they do, Kurumu. I knew that the moment I felt Ririko's reaction to my injuries. She wasn't shocked or surprised by the wounds. She _was_ surprised that I was alive. Tell me that's not a sure sign of the environment here."

"So what's the answer?" Moka asked. "How do you change the environment?"

"Power," Tsukune replied. "That's what I've been accumulating in this dusty old library. I've been studying new and interesting ways to use the power I have naturally, and learning how to control the power I have access to when you're unsealed. With that kind of power, I can protect my friends without having to kill anything, ever again."

Kurumu looked at Tsukune, a knot of uneasiness settling in her stomach. "How much power are you trying to accumulate? How will you know when it's enough?"

Tsukune's calm voice echoed in their ears and minds simultaneously, as if in stereo. _**"When every monster at Youkai has nightmares about what I'll do to those who hurt my friends."**_

Continued…


	13. Strange Escalations

Disclaimer: I own nothing, except the desire to entertain myself and others using other people's characters.

A/N: Wow! 10,000 hits, 100 reviews! Thanks to all who are reading and enjoying this story. Updates are going to come slower, as I increase the length of the chapters and try to move the story along a little faster.

Stranger In A Strange World  
Strange Escalations

"_Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster,  
and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes into you."_

_~ Friedrich Nietzsche_

~~~***~~~

Tsukune was starting to enjoy his days at Youkai. When he first arrived at this weird "Monster Academy", fear had been a constant companion. Since his powers had started to prematurely develop, however, he found himself sailing through the days with confidence and optimism. He was learning at a terrific rate how to interpret the monster auras he saw and was getting fairly good identifying the various monsters, demons, and spirits inhabiting the human forms. He knew he was still not at full strength as a projector, but he could easily make his thoughts heard to others at will, and had no doubt he would eventually be able to do something like Kurumu's Charm as he grew and strengthened. For the time being, if forced to defend himself and his friends, creativity, control, and finesse would be the order of the day. His studies in that dark, dusty library annex had given him a new sense of what could be done with just a little power over a mind, and he found himself strangely anticipating his next encounter with the Academy's "wildlife", as he called it. He would not have to wait very long.

The full moon that night was bright enough to hamper the night's stargazing, so the Astronomy Club had, at Ririko's suggestion, put their telescopes away and called it an early night. Tsukune and the girls were crossing the bridge on the way back to the dorms, when their quiet chatting was interrupted by a call from behind them.

"Oy! I'm looking for Moka Akashiya!" called the voice.

The four members of the Astronomy Club turned, to be greeted by the sight of a tall, handsome upper classman. Tsukune recognized him immediately as the editor of the school newspaper, but the name escaped him at the moment.

"I'm Ginei. Ginei Morioka, Newspaper Club President, and its editor," he introduced himself with a toothy, somewhat cocky grin. "I wanted to ask Moka a few questions for an article I'm writing. Do you have few minutes?"

Tsukune looked at his aura, looking for any hint of hostile intent or dishonesty. He saw curiosity, maybe a hint of ulterior motive, and the usual amount of physical attraction that Moka seemed to inspire in these monsters, but nothing overtly malicious.

Moka looked uncertainly at Ginei, who held up a notepad and pen, and then back to Tsukune, as if for encouragement or permission.

"He's not looking for a fight, or to hurt you, but he's not being completely honest about what he wants," Tsukune warned. "Just be careful. We'll wait at the end of the bridge."

Moka nodded, and turned to the editor, "Okay, just a few minutes, though. It's late."

Tsukune looked on as Moka joined Ginei in the middle of the bridge. Watching intently, he fought the temptation to eavesdrop telepathically, and resigned himself to be satisfied by watching their auras. If the monster was to try anything unfriendly, he expected to have enough warning from that. As the two talked, Moka's aura slowly shifted into anger, and Tsukune braced himself for action. He was already walking toward them when Moka's voice rang out "Pervert!" and her hand made solid contact with Ginei's left cheek. Without warning, his aura shifted into rage and hostility, as he shed his human form, transforming into the classic picture of a werewolf. Tsukune, running now, noted that the werewolf's aura was almost as strong as Inner Moka's. If they fought, even with Moka's power, he guessed Ginei would not be the pushover that Moka's previous opponents had been.

Howling, and sputtering enraged curses, the werewolf coiled himself to attack just as Tsukune reached Moka, and very deliberately snapped off her rosary. Momentarily surprised by Moka's flare of energy, the werewolf paused, watching her transformation.

"A vampire, huh? I wonder why no one felt _that_," he said. "No matter. You may be an 'all-powerful' vampire, but no one bests a werewolf under a full moon! You'll be mine tonight, and your pet whatever-he-is will be a light snack for the both of us!"

Tsukune clasped his arms around Moka, earning a surprised glare from the vampire. "Stay still, don't dodge him, don't move. He can't hit us," Tsukune whispered in her ear, as he made the adjustment to Ginei's depth perception and eyesight.

Moka, intrigued, allowed the insult of such intimate personal contact go for the moment. "Show me what you can do, Tsukune."

Slashing wildly, Ginei tried to sink his claws into Tsukune without trying to hurt Moka seriously, but simply couldn't connect. His speed was incredible, and Tsukune realized that there would be no avoiding any attack that was actually aimed at him correctly. Moka's eyes widened as she watched the nearest match to her in power and speed simply flail helplessly after thin air, passing his claws beside, over, and short of them in impotent fury. This continued for several minutes, until Ginei finally paused, panting in exertion, and glowering in suspicious resentment.

Releasing his embrace on Moka, Tsukune peered into the werewolf's mind, and gave a slight push, remembering that he had Moka's power coursing through his brain. Aloud he said, "I think you had best just leave this alone. If you keep this up, I'll become annoyed, and I'll give you to the vampire after I've incapacitated you."

Ginei laughed sarcastically, scratching absently at his leg as he retorted. "Oh, stop! You're frightening me! What's a pipsqueak like you going to do? Magic won't work on me, and I don't see a gun with silver bullets, so how are _you_ going to stop _me_?" His other clawed hand moved to his stomach, scratching more firmly now, as the original paw reached to scratch his neck.

Tsukune smiled, attempting to reproduce the cocky, overly-wide grin he'd seen the werewolf use. "It's already started. You'll be useless in just a few minutes." As he spoke, Ginei's scratching became more and more desperate. The werewolf continued to scratch and wriggle in discomfort as he started to utter curses.

"Damn it! What's…" he blurted as the itching became more widespread and persistent, not even realizing his claws were digging into his skin as he sought relief from the sensation of…fleabites. Dozens of them. Dozens became hundreds, and hundreds became thousands, driving all thoughts of confrontation and fighting out of his mind. Writhing in discomfort and scratching madly at his entire body, he finally fled the bridge, howling in embarrassment and frustration.

Chuckling softly, Tsukune turned to Moka. "That was actually _fun_!"

Crimson eyes regarded him curiously. "What did you do to him?"

"First, I adjusted his perception so he couldn't connect with any blows or slashes. He was going all-out, so he tired himself out pretty quickly."

"And then? What was the scratching all about? Did you do that, too?"

"In a way, he did it to himself. He got fleas _really_ bad when he was younger. It drove him nuts with itching, and they didn't go away until he used pet store flea dip in his bath. His werewolf friends teased him about it for _months_ afterward. His memory of it is very clear, so I used that. I could have used his imagination, and made it cigarette burns instead of flea bites."

A thin wisp of smile crept onto Moka's features. "Will it stop?" she asked.

Tsukune chuckled again. "Sure it will; when he takes a flea bath, and not before."

"Discomfort, humiliation, and pain, but no physical damage, except self-inflicted," she mused, as if thinking aloud. "Tsukune, I think I approve."

"Thanks," Tsukune replied, with a lilt of self-approval coloring his tone. "I kind of liked it myself," he said as he held up her rosary to her.

"However," her red eyes narrowed, as her smile became dangerously sweet. "We will now discuss your completely inappropriate level of physical familiarity." She took the rosary from his hand and stepped close to whisper into his ear. "I have never tasted you for myself; I have only the vague memory of my outer self doing so. While I correct this oversight, perhaps you should start to remember your place." Without another word, she sunk her fangs into his neck, a little more roughly than Outer Moka had ever done, and drank. When she finished, she snapped the rosary back into place without another word.

~~~***~~~

The next morning, Tsukune awoke with a throbbing headache. _I guess I'm still not used to the power surge I get from the Inner Moka_, he thought. After downing a couple of aspirin, he finished his morning meditation as best he could and left for classes.

Today, their first class after homeroom was with Miss Nekonome, so Tsukune had an hour and a half of their ditzy homeroom teacher to tune out. _This is going to be a long day_, he thought, as he closed his eyes to get some more meditation time in.

_**Psst! Tsukune!**_ Kurumu's voice roused him from his contemplation. Surprised that she would call out to him during class, he turned in his seat to make eye contact. As he did, he heard her voice again, despite the fact that her mouth plainly wasn't moving. _**Tsukune!**_

Facing forward again, he sent his thought out in amazement._**Can you hear me?**_

_**This is so cool! Yes, I can hear you!**_

_**How the hell are you doing that?**_ he asked.

_**You said yourself that you could pick up on thoughts and feelings that were directed at you. I figured it was worth a try, since your powers have been growing.**_

Tsukune was amazed that Kurumu, of all people, would be the first to pick up on the possibility, let alone try to communicate. _**I wonder if anyone could do this**_, he thought.

_**I hope not, I kind of like having you to myself, this way. I'll bet it's because I already connected with you once, when I tried to Charm you.**_

_**You're not planning on trying again, are you?**_ he asked.

_**Of course I am, silly! I'm just going to have to do it the old-fashioned way; with natural charisma and stunning good looks, instead of telepathic power. I don't care how powerful you are mentally, you're still no match for a succubus on the prowl for her Destined One!**_

_**Oh, Kurumu,**_ he thought sadly, _**you still don't get it, do you?**_

_**What do you mean?**_ she asked.

_**I'm still just a goal for you to achieve, aren't I? When you first tried to Charm me, it was to steal me away from a rival; and now, you want me as some kind of notch in your belt, or a box to put a check mark in.**_

_**It's not like that!**_ A note of panic entered her thoughts. _**It's just that...**_

_**Really? How many Charmed slaves do you have now? Fourteen? If you're so sure I'm this Destined One you keep talking about, why keep them around? Why not just release those poor bastards?**_

_**That's just not the way we do it**_, she thought defensively.

_**Remember when you asked me how my species chooses a mate? I'll tell you. About how we do it now, and how we used to do it.**_ He paused, mentally taking a breath.

_**My people are reptiles. On your planet, dinosaurs were killed off by a massive asteroid impact, and mammals took over as the dominant species. That didn't happen on my planet; I'm the result of fifty million years of dinosaur evolution. Your human scientists would call me a Sauroid, or some such thing. Before we evolved telepathic ability, we chose mates in response to the pheromones released by the females. It was our sense of smell that guided us to our mates.**_

_**But you're a human, now, aren't you?**_

_**Physically, yes, but my brain hasn't changed. When we evolved telepathic abilities, our mating habits changed. When you can directly share thoughts and feelings with another sentient being, none of the other stuff really matters any more. We eventually stopped responding to pheromones, and sought out mates that were compatible on a mental and emotional level. In time, humans will develop telepathy, and things like pelvic shape and mammary size will no longer be mating cues to them. They'll change and adapt, just as we did.**_

_**So you're saying you want to look into a potential mate's heart and mind? Why not just look into mine? I'd let you do that, if it would convince you that my feelings are sincere.**_

Tsukune sighed aloud. _**You're missing my point. **_Kurumu's heart sank, as she very clearly received the sense of disappointment and sadness that came with his thoughts._** You said 'That's just not the way you do it.' If you can't evolve past the way you've always done things, I don't see how I could possibly **_**ever**_** be your Destined One.**_

Kurumu sat through the remainder of the lecture in silence, both physically and mentally, before fleeing the room at the instant the bell sounded for next class.

~~~***~~~

When Tsukune arrived outside his dorm the next morning, it was with a pang of disappointment that he noted the absence of a particular, blue-haired succubus. Granted, he certainly didn't expect the airborne, pillows-to-the-face greeting that had been her custom, but he was honestly surprised to see that she had shunned his company altogether. _Maybe_, he thought, _'possibly ever' was a little extreme._ Yukari, of course, didn't help to improve his mood.

"Yeah!" she cheered. "You finally told Boob Monster to pound sand, didn't you?"

He fixed her a with a cold glare, as he sent his thought directly to her, pouring his irritation into the effort. _**Shut up, Yukari! Hurting her feelings is not something I'm happy about.**_

Yukari, suddenly feeling an inexplicable sense of apprehension and peril, reflexively hid behind Moka. "S-sorry," she stammered, "I'll be quiet."

It was a very quiet walk to classes that morning.

Kurumu was in classes that morning, in her customary seat, but neither greeted nor acknowledged Tsukune. Her aura was like a too-tight skin of emotional pain and helplessness; if it was a physical thing, it looked as if it would suffocate her. His quick thought of, _**Are you okay?**_ went unheeded, or unanswered, if it was heard. He decided against trying to initiate a telepathic conversation with Moka during homeroom; he wasn't a hundred percent sure exactly who he'd be talking to if he did, so he shelved the idea for the time being.

And the kicker; Saizo chose today to return to class, still sporting a few bandages and a sling on his arm. His aura was no less hostile or reticent for his injuries. Tsukune sighed inwardly, and turned his attention to Miss Nekonome, who he was now sure was a _bakeneko_, or cat-person.

Surprisingly, her babbling about the human world finally got his full and undivided attention.

"...so you see," she said, "the human world, with its wars and genocide, is much more violent than the monster world."

Tsukune laughed out loud.

"You have something to add, Aono?" she asked, with a mildly irritated tone.

"Wars and genocide? All that proves is that humans consider killing each other a 'team sport', rather than an individual event. I've seen more violence in a month here at Youkai than I've ever seen in ten years at human schools."

"This is how we monsters establish our relative positions. It's our nature to compete for supremacy by fighting." Tsukune was shocked to Saizo try to enter the 'debate'.

"Have you ever thought that the reason you have to learn to _hide_ among humans here, is that you never learned to _cooperate_ against them, or even _with_ them? What if along with 'co-existing with humans', we learned how to co-exist with each other as well?"

"Co-existing with humans is a pipe dream. It can't be done." Yet another student spoke up, followed by approving murmurs from some of the class.

"You're wrong," said Tsukune. "I made friends in the human world, some of them very good friends." He looked around the class. "How many of us here have human friends?" He raised his own hand, and about a third of the class followed suit.

Nekonome, trying to regain control of the class, countered. "Alright, those of you who have human friends who know you're monsters, keep your hands up. The rest of you, hands down!"

Tsukune was surprised to see that his was not the only hand remaining up. One other student, a blond-haired girl in the first row, still had her hand up. Shizuka turned to her first.

"How did they find out?" she asked.

"I told her," the girl answered. "I just couldn't hide it from her any more. She earned the right to know who I really was." Tsukune had, by her aura, identified her as a _Yōsei_ earlier that week.

When Shizuka's gaze fell on him, Tsukune said, "She found out who my family was by accident. Rather than begging to keep her memories, she begged to keep our memoirs. She wanted to be our biographer, against the day when we could reveal the story of our time among the humans, even if it wasn't in her lifetime." All eyes were on Tsukune, now. "She wanted people to know and accept who we were, when the time was right. My parents agreed, and now, she's like a cousin to me."

"I still say we should just eat all those stupid humans!" Saizo laughed. "What could they do?"

"Is that your answer for everything?" Tsukune countered. "You may be moderately intimidating one-on-one with a human, but a municipal SWAT team would finish you in minutes, wouldn't they?"

"..." Saizo opened his mouth to retort, but got no further.

"Hell, an American Navy SEAL team would floss their teeth with you! And then you'd have got their attention. How would it feel to be the orc who betrayed the presence of your race to the humans with attacks and violence? You've got power, alright; the power to ensure the extinction of your entire species, you dumb son of a bitch!"

Saizo, enraged, drew his good arm back for a slash at Tsukune, transforming his hand to a clawed meat hook on its way. "I'll show you extinction, you little piece of ..." The instant his arm started forward, it stopped.

_I needed a public demonstration_, thought Tsukune, as he focused on the pain reception center of Saizo's mind and pushed, _how convenient that Saizo's volunteered._

Saizo's shriek of agony was heard throughout the entire floor. The instant his arm started forward motion towards the upstart pipsqueak, it felt as if he had immersed it in molten steel. The pain was staggering. Pale and sweating, he grasped his hand with bulging eyes, doubling protectively over his still-tingling, but undamaged appendage.

_**And if you think humans are so frightening**_, Tsukunes voice rang in his mind,_** that you want to eat them all, think about this; the only reason you're not still screaming is that I remembered to turn the pain off...**_

Saizo continued to whimper in remembered pain as the rest of the class looked from Tsukune to Saizo, and back to Saizo again, whispering animately amongst themselves.

Tsukune returned to his notes, cursing to himself as he furtively got out a handkerchief, and wiped two crimson spots off of his notebook. As he wiped the blood from his nose, he thought, _I'm going to have to start carrying the aspirin with me, my head is killing me..._

~~~***~~~

Continued…


	14. Strange Descent

Disclaimer: I own nothing, except the desire to entertain myself and others using other people's characters.

A/N: Responses to Anon Reviews...

cevgar: Damn! Your reviews rock! Even if you spent the entire review flaming my story and calling me an idiot, I think I'd probably learn something from it. Thanks for the (extremely) detailed feedback.

DiabolicalCalico234: Thanks for the feedback. I'm staying away from the 'sharing of bodily fluids' thing. If the Galactic Commonwealth SAR teams scanned him? Well, I think instant vaporization would be the order of the day if they found vampire (foreign, native, malignant, active) blood products in him. As for manipulation of the brain's motor control centers? Manipulation is a LOT harder than just 'disabling'. Read on...

~~~***~~~

Stranger In A Strange World  
Strange Descent

"_Dum spiro, spero."_

_(While I breathe, I hope.)_

_~ Latin Proverb_

~~~***~~~

Shizuka Nekonome was locked in a life-or-death struggle. She was certain her continued good health depended upon her resistance against the urge to giggle aloud at the werewolf Ginei. The normally good-humored and outgoing editor stalked into the Newspaper Club room with dark circles under his furious eyes, and unlocked the file cabinet containing the student files for their investigation. Snatching the Akashiya file out, he scrawled "VAMPIRE" in large, hasty script under "Monster Type", and thrust the folder at Hatori, one of the newcomers to the club.

"Take this to the Student Police immediately," he ordered, none too politely as he slammed the file cabinet drawer closed.

It wasn't his dark demeanor or foul mood that had Shizuka biting her lips closed, however. It was the smell. An almost visible cloud of cheap cologne followed Gin into the club room, as if he had bathed in it. Her sensitive nose, however, picked up a faint, familiar scent; almost hidden in the reek of cologne, but not quite. She recognized it immediately, nearly bursting out laughing at the thought of the cocky, "elite monster" werewolf requesting monster-strength flea dip from the infirmary. Given his ill humor that afternoon, she was certain that her amusement would not be well received.

Hatori opened the door to leave, revealing Saizou Komiya standing outside the door, with his fist poised to knock on the door. "This the Newspaper Club?" he asked abruptly.

She simply nodded meekly, and squeezed past the delinquent monster to flee down the hall toward the exit, as Saizou stepped into the club room. "I'm surprised Kouyo let you have a student newspaper this year, considering last year's…trouble," he said, sending Ginei a knowing look. He paused, and cocked his head to the side slightly as he sniffed. "What's that smell?"

"Never mind," growled the editor, clenching his jaw in poorly suppressed annoyance. "We've agreed to work with the Student Police this year. Even Kouyo has limits to his authority, and realizes it's easier to make use of us, than try to stamp us out every semester. What brings you here? You need surplus copies for paper-mache? Or are you changing the lining on the bottom of your cage?"

The orc's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Why don't we get back to that when there's less of a moon? What brings me here? A little spider told me that I should tell you about my little 'incident' with the worm, Aono. She said something about an investigation?"

"Ah. The little squirt got the better of you did he? How did he manage that without even getting up out of his desk, I wonder?" Gin turned to Mizore. "Come take notes for us Mizore. He's _your_ subject, after all."

Nodding, Mizore silently slid into a seat nearby and flipped open her journal, and poised her pen.

"So what," Gin asked, "exactly did he do to you? No one we interviewed from your class saw him do anything, except glance at you."

"That's just it," Saizou replied. "He didn't _do_ anything. One second, I'm winding up to gut the little turd; the next my arm feels like it's on fire. Worse, even. There were no flames, or flashes of light, or anything; just pain like I never felt before in my life, then nothing. I expected to see the skin burned off, but there was no damage at all. There was no evidence of anything happening to my arm that would cause that kind of pain. No burns, no scars, just tingling after the pain went away."

"That sounds similar to…another reported incident with the Aono boy. There was a sensation of pain and discomfort, but no evidence of damage. It sounds to me like he's casting illusions."

"Wait a minute," Saizou said. "I didn't _see_ anything. How can it be an illusion?"

"Only extremely powerful illusions are so complete they work on all your senses. Think about it; how many monsters here are giving away their true nature by smell alone? You and I both know what each other are by smell, don't we? If he can give you an illusion of the pain of fire, without wasting time and effort on the sight, smell, and sound of it, why wouldn't he?"

Saizou shuddered in spite of himself. "Illusion or not, it still hurt like the real thing. And what he said afterwards has me kind of worried, too."

"What?" Gin allowed a note of surprise to enter his voice. "Everyone we interviewed agrees that he said nothing. What did you hear him say?"

"I heard him loud and clear, say, 'the only reason you're not still screaming is that I remembered to turn the pain off.'"

"Well, that's interesting. Did he just whisper so no one else could hear, or was his voice clear?"

"Like I said, loud and clear; everyone in class should have heard him."

"Did his mouth move while he said it?"

"Of course it did! How could…" Saizou's voice trailed off as he tried to remember what he actually saw, rather than what he expected to see. "No, his mouth did _not_ move. What the hell does _that_ mean?"

Gin chuckled darkly. "What it means for you, Saizou, is that you best learn to be much, much more polite around the Aono boy. He can apparently put the sensation of pain directly into your mind, and leave it there forever, if he chooses to. How long do you think you could live with that kind of pain? Hours? Days? I'd bet that within a week, you'd hack your own arm off to be rid of the pain." Gin regarded Saizou's troubled expression with a small degree of satisfaction. "Of course, being an effect of the mind, even cutting your arm off _wouldn't make the pain go away_."

"That also explains another thing," Mizore broke into the discussion with her cool deadpan. "He's the hardest stalk I've ever had. I don't know if he knows it was me specifically, but he knows when someone's watching him. It's like he has a sixth sense about someone's interest in him. He's a telepath, on top of an illusion caster."

"So," asked Saizou, "how do we get at the little freak?"

"Hah!" Gin laughed. "We don't. If he can read minds, you can't ambush him. For the average monster, there is no defense against illusions or mental attacks. Why do you think no one messes with the succubus, Kurumu? She's an airhead; a flighty, unfocused little girl in a woman's body, but _no one_ resists her Charm. She _owns_ no less than a dozen monsters, now. She doesn't even need her talons and wings to defend herself; all she needs is a few slaves that can fight, and she's safe as can be."

"That explains another thing," said Mizore. "She and Tsukune are friends, and he's _not_ her slave." Mizore ignored the raised eyebrows at her use of his first name. "Succubae don't usually have any male friends that they don't own, do they? I wonder what they could possibly have in common?"

"What now?" asked Saizou. "You guys report this, and then what?"

"We report our findings to the Student Police," said Gin simply. "What they do with him after that is not our concern."

"But, he can't be the human infiltrator they suspect, can he?" Mizore asked. "Not with power like that. Should we report him as 'Unknown – but definitely not human'. What do we tell Keito?"

"We tell her nothing. Until we positively identify Tsukune Aono, he remains under suspicion as a human infiltrator," Gin replied. "And you, Saizou, keep your mouth shut about what you've heard here tonight. It's Student Police business, got it?"

Saizou swallowed reflexively. "Student Police business; got it!"

_Maybe Tsukune Aono is just the sort of challenge the Student Police need to keep them on their toes_, Gin thought. _It'll be interesting to see how they handle him_. Aloud, he said, "Mizore, continue your investigation."

~~~***~~~

It was a full four days before Kurumu and Tsukune did more than nod diffidently to each other. Tsukune may not have been a subject matter expert on the niceties of "female mood interpretation", but he did enjoy the advantage of being able to see an aura that shouted, "Screw off!" Finally, the day of the weekly astronomy club meeting, he finally saw Kurumu, walking alone to the school, with an aura of resignation and receptiveness. A terse "I need to talk to her" stifled the both Moka's and Yukari's objections, as he hurried up the path to catch up to the succubus.

"Kurumu," he started, "I know you're angry with me but..."

"Stop right there," she commanded. Satisfied that he was listening, she continued. "It's not just that you made me angry. You said some things that I had to think really hard about. It's no secret that deep thoughts are not my strong point, so I needed some time so sort things out, and figure how to tell you what I needed to tell you.

"When you talked about my need to evolve, I had to think about it in terms of what that meant for all succubae, not just myself. You see, we believe that we will only ever have one true Mate, one Destined One. If that's you, and you reject me, then I am destined to be alone, forever. For a succubus, that's a not just a personal failure, but a failure to my race. When you used those words, 'couldn't possibly ever', I saw myself not just as a rejected female, but a failure to my species, a participant in our own extinction. I couldn't handle it."

Finally, something clicked in Tsukune's mind. "Kurumu, I'm sorry," he said. "I had no idea what it meant to you, or respect for it, if I did have any idea. It's just that, well, I guess the main thing is that your Charm thing that you do; for telepaths like myself, there is no worse fate, no more heinous violation than the enslavement of another mind. Maybe what you do is different, I don't know. That's part of the problem, I condemned you before I knew enough to make that judgment. The other thing is this: I'm confused."

Kurumu looked puzzled. "What could confuse a mind like yours?" she asked.

"My feelings," Tsukune frowned as he continued. "While you were avoiding us, I kept getting this sense of...loss...at times where I expected you to be there and you weren't. I've never encountered anything like it, and I was at a loss to explain it. But there it was: this...emptiness...whenever you weren't where you should have been."

Kurumu could have cheered, "Yahoo!" out loud, but somehow, managed to respond with a question. "What do think it means?" she asked quietly, trying to keep the hopeful catch out of her voice.

"That's just it. I have no idea what these feelings mean. The only thing I know for sure is that I'm not supposed to be having them. My body might be human, which means I have all the hormonal and biological impulses a human should have, but that's not the extent of it. I've _missed_ you, these past few days. It might not seem all that significant to you, but the fact that I can have feelings like this is a source of terrible confusion to me."

"It may be confusing to you, Tsukune," she said, "but for us, that's monsters and humans alike, we typically just go where our feelings take us. Why is that such a problem for you?"

"Kurumu," he looked very seriously at her, "I don't belong here. In just over fifty years, our distress signal will reach our home planet. About a week after that, a person will meet me, and say, 'Aono, it's time to go.' And I'll be gone, just like that, and on my way home. Or not."

"Why would there be a not?"

"If I am found to have influenced the native population excessively, or taken a mate...I'll be stranded here. I will not be permitted to return Home. I'm already pushing the limits with three natives aware of my true nature, but I'm hoping the fact that monsters don't interact with humans on a regular basis limits the damage. Kurumu, you're asking me to make a decision now that I shouldn't have to make for another fifty years, at least."

"Tsukune, I had no idea." Kurumu deflated, almost visibly. "That's it then, isn't it? We can't be together?"

"I can't say that, either. At least not yet. Who's to say that I couldn't find a reason to stay, instead of returning with the rescue team? It's rare, but not unheard of. What I need, Kurumu, is time. I'm still adjusting to learning about the existence of monsters, and you're pressing me to become a mate to one. I'm not ready for that, and I don't know if or when I will be. Can you wait? Even if the answer is eventually 'no?'"

"I can wait, but not for too long. I still have a responsibility to my species. We're still on the edge of extinction."

"Kurumu, let me tell you something. Extinction should no longer be a concern for you." Tsukune smiled wryly. "If you tell any officials of the Galactic Commonwealth I told you this, I'll be in deep trouble, but I think I can trust you. Extinction is no longer a probable outcome for succubae, or any other race of monster, for that matter."

"What are you saying?" Kurumu asked, awestruck by the implications of his statement.

"How long? For the succubae to be extinct? A hundred, two hundred years?"

"About two hundred, if things stay the way they are."

"In another seventy-five years, one hundred at the most, by our estimates, the humans of this planet will be making their first trips into interstellar space. On their first voyage, they will be greeted by the Commonwealth, and invited to join a larger community, an alliance of space-faring races. Earth will be surveyed in detail. The monster world will be discovered. It's inevitable."

Kurumu gasped in horror. "That will be our extinction! We'll all be doomed!"

"No! It'll be your salvation! To the Commonwealth, there will be next to no distinction between humans and monsters. Except that some species of monsters will be dangerously close to extinction. When that fact comes to light, every enlightened exo-biologist, exo-zoologist, and activist in the galaxy will be bending their efforts to the preservation of your race. They'll even fight for the preservation of orcs, like Saizou! When that happens, extinction will no longer be permitted to happen to any species here on Earth, yours included."

"Why are you telling me this? What's in it for you?" she asked with a note of awe in her voice.

"There's nothing in it for me. Except maybe this: if you know _for a fact_ that the survival of your species doesn't depend on you finding a Destined One, or being mated to the first fertile male who treats you decently, maybe, just maybe, you can just look for someone who makes you truly happy, without all the evolutionary imperatives cluttering the picture. Find someone who makes you happy. You do that, and _that's_ what's in it for me."

_It's still you, Tsukune_, Kurumu thought, with tears glistening in her eyes, _you have just made me the happiest succubus in the world, and YOU told me yourself to find someone who makes me happy. If there ever was a truly Destined One for a succubus, you must be mine._

~~~***~~~

Later that night, the Astronomy Club followed the usual pairings of Kurumu and Tsukune, and Moka and Yukari as they set up their telescopes. It was a fairly routine exercise, and Tsukune got himself and Kurumu through the required observations in short order. After that, Ririko had instructed, they were to "find something interesting to look at."

"What do think, Kurumu? What would you like to see?" Tsukune asked.

Kurumu thought for a moment, with a finger to her chin. "Show me one of the stars you've visited."

"Heh," Tsukune grunted. "I know just the one," he said as he started to swing the telescope around. After consulting his star chart and making a few final adjustments, he said, "There it is; Epsilon Indi." Still peering into the eyepiece, he continued, "My family took a vacation there, not long before we crashed on this planet."

"Ahem." A soprano voice made its owner's presence known. Tsukune and Kurumu swiveled their heads to see Yukari standing not five feet away. "Took a vacation where, Tsukune?" she asked in a saccharin-sweet tone that was a complete mismatch to the suspicious glint in her narrowing eyes.

Kurumu's eyes bulged in horror, while Tsukune hung his head in abject defeat. _That's four_, he thought glumly, _I am _so_ getting exiled here_. Turning his eyes back up to meet Yukari's gaze, he tried to collect himself and salvage the situation.

"Ummm. Okinawa?" he said hopefully.

"Try again, 'Math-Boy'; and remember I've already heard the part about you crashing on this planet."

Kurumu responded first. "Yukari, you can't tell anyone! Do you hear me? _No one_!"

"Why not?" Yukari asked with an impish grin creeping over her face. "It's not like he's human or anything. He might get reprimanded for lying on his application, but considering the 'special circumstances', the Chairman would probably let it slide. It might even make him more popular!"

"Yukari!" Moka admonished. "You have no right! If you don't keep this to yourself, you can find yourself a new set of friends, because you won't be welcome with us!"

Yukari's eyes widened in surprise at Moka's vehemence. As she turned her gaze to Kurumu, surprise gave way to fear. Kurumu had extended about six inches of talons on her right hand, and the grim look on her normally smiling face all but shouted her demonic heritage.

"Friends will be the least of your worries," she hissed through clenched teeth, "you flat-chested little brat! If you don't keep your mouth shut about this, they'll be serving you up at the 'Others' counter in the cafeteria tomorrow!"

"Whoa!" Yukari held her hands up in a surrender gesture. "I was just kidding! Claws in, kitty-cat!"

"Seriously, Yukari," Tsukune said levelly, "I can't have this become general knowledge. And Kurumu? There's no need to kill her. If she can't be trusted, there are ways to ensure she doesn't remember anything about what she heard tonight." He turned his gaze back to the young witch. "Can I trust you, Yukari? I mean _really_ trust you?" he asked.

Yukari paused only a second before nodding solemnly. "I don't know why it's such a big deal, here at Youkai, but yeah, you can trust me."

"I'm sorry Yukari, but, do I have your permission to verify that?"

"What? Oh. You want to peek in and see for yourself. Go ahead," she replied with a mischievous smirk.

Not noticing her playful grin, Tsukune brushed his mind against hers, sharing her thoughts for a few seconds. "Gah!" he burst out in disgust. "Yukari! That's just wrong!"

Yukari's peal of laughter rang through the night air. "Gotcha!" she sang, with lascivious amusement.

Moka's face was a mask of shock and confusion, as Kurumu's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "What did you show him, you little perv?" Turning to Tsukune, she asked, "Well, can she be trusted?"

Tsukune's eyes were still slightly troubled. "About not telling anyone; yes, we can trust her. About _anything_ else…" he trailed off, shaking his head in awe that an eleven-year-old mind could harbor thoughts like that without grave psychological damage.

"Okay, spill, Space Man," Yukari pressed. "How the hell did you end up here?"

Tsukune spent the next fifteen minutes relating the condensed version of his arrival and life on Earth. How his parents transformed the family into human form, his education at all-boys private schools. About his apparently accidental enrollment to Youkai, and his discovery by Moka and Kurumu. Throughout his narrative, Yukari showed no reaction at all.

"So that's it. Tsukune Aono: Extraterrestrial Extraordinaire." he concluded with a chuckle. "You don't seem too surprised."

Yukari looked at him with peevish amusement. "Come on! The math? The telepathy? Still having your virginity with Boob-Monster here sniffing after you? Being a space alien from a distant star is the only explanation that makes any sort of sense! I just have one question."

"What's that?" Tsukune asked.

"When are you gonna probe my a…?"

The remainder of the question was expertly intercepted by Moka, who, blushing furiously, clamped a hand over the precocious witch's mouth.

~~~***~~~

Over the next few days, Tsukune grew increasingly hopeful that life at Youkai Academy would calm down some. Kurumu was much more subdued, still greeting him warmly each morning, but without the airborne abandon that had been her style until now. He found himself actually getting to like the "new Kurumu" more and more. Yukari alternated between questioning him on interstellar propulsion, and which species from which systems had tentacles; he decided he really, really didn't want to know why she would be so curious about exobiology. Moka, too, seemed these past few days to be more distant and thoughtful than usual. Tsukune promised himself to set aside some time to talk to her one-on-one.

It also seemed that the "Tsukune Doctrine" was starting to have an effect. Not one single monster attacked him or his friends since his object lesson to Saizou, and even "imminent" fights between other monsters seemed to be averted by Tsukune's arrival on the scene. In particular, he remembered two second-year orcs who immediately abandoned their torment of a first-year Tanuki when he rounded a corner. _Must be friends of Saizou's_, he thought, as he noted the apprehension and fear in their auras, with a twinge of satisfaction.

He was strolling past the athletic field after classes, chatting excitedly with Moka, Yukari, and Kurumu about their upcoming Astronomy Club field trip to the human world, when the Universe decided Tsukune had enjoyed enough peace and quiet for the semester. The topic of conversation had turned to exactly why Shizuka and Ririko had decided to hold a joint Astronomy/Newspaper Club trip for the semester break, when a distant scream of revulsion tore the afternoon calm from the tree line across the field. Turning his senses immediately to the auras there, Tsukune gasped in disgust.

"Kurumu! Fly me over there, now!" he blurted, as manners yielded to urgency.

Kurumu, to her credit, recognized the haste in his tone, and transformed instantly, snatching him up into the air with powerful beats of her bat-like wings. As they approached, he studied the auras more closely. One was very familiar to him, the other, more vaguely so. He knew at least one of the combatants.

Just inside the tree line, in an open are of the grove of trees surrounding the athletic field, two monsters were locked in combat. The large, green, tentacle-waving sea monster's aura was one he knew all too well. Here, attacking a student, was the one teacher that Tsukune actively disliked. Always berating Tsukune for his "human-like weakness", and "un-monster-like lack of balls", the Physical Education teacher was something of a nemesis to the weak and unassuming first-year. Coach Kotsubo was lashing out with his tentacles at a pale, slim, violet-haired student, while she materialized and launched volleys of kunai made of ice. The Kraken's current state of mind made Tsukune want to gag in revulsion at the intent that suffused his aura. He was not attacking the girl for food, or just to kill her; what the Kraken wanted was probably worse than either of those. As he and Kurumu descended to the forest floor, he realized why the girl's aura was vaguely familiar. She was his stealthy and curious "secret admirer". _Figures_, he thought, _she's some kind of snow ninja. No wonder I couldn't nail her down. _The instant Tsukune was on his feet, he lashed out at the pre-occupied Kraken.

Mizore watched in cold fascination as the tentacles reaching for her suddenly went limp, and the coach crashed to ground, immobile. Finally noting Tsukune's presence, she realized he must have done something to stop the Kraken. Looking warily at the limp form of the monster, she simply asked, "What did you do to him?"

"I reached into his brain and shut down his motor control center. He's totally paralyzed for the time being," Tsukune answered, shutting his eyes for a second against the twinge of pain in his head.

"Good," Mizore said, as she approached the helpless beast, brandishing her ice claws.

"Wait!" he called out. Mizore simply looked questioningly at him. "I have a better idea."

Kurumu walked up beside Tsukune at this point, looking at Mizore with a hint of suspicion. "What're you going to do to him? Wipe him out, like the lizard man? He deserves it, if he was after what I think he was after."

Tsukune nodded. "He was, and I think oblivion is just a little too easy for what he was about to do." Kurumu started to feel a chill knot form in her stomach, as Tsukune's tone grew too cold to be Tsukune. "An aquatic creature like him probably hates fire," he said blandly as he knelt toward Kotsubo. Peering into the monsters mind, ignoring the panic and fear he saw, he reached for the region of the brain he knew handled the perception of pain. "_**Burn,**_" he sent to its mind, as he released his power. Backing away, he watched as the Kraken squealed in anguish and agony, thrashing helplessly against the sensation of being consumed by flames. The pain in his head staggered him as he turned away from the thrashing monster and pinched his nose against the steady flow of blood that started.

Kurumu watched in concern, and said, "Tsukune, are you…"

"Never mind me," Tsukune cut her off in a nasally voice. "Fly the snow ninja to the infirmary; I'll catch up with you." Noting Kurumu's concerned and questioning gaze, he insisted, "I'm _fine_. Go."

Seeing Moka and Yukari approaching at a run, Kurumu flared her wings and picked up Mizore, bridal style. "I'll get her to the infirmary. Moka! Get Tsukune to the infirmary, too! I'll be back to pick him up if he's longer than fifteen or twenty minutes."

Moka looked from the thrashing Kraken, to Tsukune, and back again. "What's he feeling?" she asked.

"Fire."

Shuddering slightly, she asked, "Are you going to turn it off?"

Turning to start his walk to the infirmary, Tsukune deadpanned, "No."

Continued


	15. Strange Frailty

Disclaimer: I own nothing, except the desire to entertain myself and others using other people's characters.

A/N: Yep. I'm a horrible, procrastinating, update-delaying fanfic author. Seriously, between work and fanfic, I'm kinda roped into working on what pays the bills. Without further ado...

* * *

Stranger In A Strange World  
Strange Frailty

"_The greatest weakness of all is the great fear of appearing weak."_

_~ Jacques Benigne Bossuel_

* * *

Tsukune felt almost reptilian again. Almost.

After his initial disappointment with the seaside destination of the joint Newspaper and Astronomy club summer outing, he decided to relax by catching up on some much needed sunbathing. Of course, sunbathing was an entirely different proposition with thin, fragile human skin, rather than a proper covering of scales. Human skin lacked any substantial protection from Sol's ultraviolet emissions, and he had to slather ludicrous amounts of protective cream onto himself to be able to lie even an hour in the sun. A right and proper session of sunbathing was supposed to consume at least half a day, and that was most aptly spent on a warm rock, not the mushy surface of a towel laid on the sand.

Therefore, Tsukune had to limit his exposure to a couple of hours at best, before retreating under the shade of a beach umbrella, and accept the reality that human skin was simply not designed for lying on rocks. Despite these limitations, Tsukune finally felt the stress and excitement of the previous week melting away under the rays of Earth's barely adequate sun.

Stress and anxiety had been a constant companion since the altercation with the Kraken, Kotsubo, and subsequent revelations that night. The girls were very..._vexed_...with him for hurting himself in the course of exercising his mental powers, and insisted that he stop…immediately. It took some fast-talking, anatomical half-truths, and puppy-dog-eyed pleas for forgiveness for them to abandon the idea of bondage as a means of keeping him from any confrontations until the semester break outing. They relented (Yukari hadn't, but was outvoted), of course, with a vow to watch him very carefully. Tsukune couldn't help but marvel at the impenetrable stubbornness of the female monster. They knew he could probably undo anything they tried to restrain him, but despite that obvious reality, they were committed preserving his well-being, with or without his consent. It was an emotional dynamic he promised himself some further meditative examination on during the club trip.

The "snow ninja", Mizore Shirayuki, had escaped her encounter with the coach more or less unscathed, physically, and appeared to be too unemotional and cool-tempered for the incident to have deeply affected her, psychologically. She made a specific point of correcting Tsukune's "snow ninja" interpretation of her powers and stealth, proudly identifying herself as a _yuki-onna_. When he asked what her particular interest in him was, he immediately regretted doing so in the presence of the other girls. Female monsters, in addition to being stubborn, are also fiercely territorial and possessive, apparently. It was Mizore's turn to display her skill at fast-talking and pleas for forgiveness, as she related that she was stalking Tsukune as part of a newspaper club assignment on unidentified monsters. Apparently unaware of the dire peril of doing so, she admitted that as she watched the enigmatic first-year boy, she became more interested in Tsukune, the person, than she was in Tsukune, the Mystery Monster.

_Great!_ Tsukune had thought sarcastically at the time, _I'm making many friends among the female monsters here! That couldn't possibly complicate my life any more than it already is, could it?_

As if to prove to the axiom that "trouble comes in threes", while the group was being acquainted with the shiny, new Tsukune-admirer, a heavily sedated coach Kotsubo was wheeled into the infirmary. The group was able to overhear the litany of injuries inflicted on the hapless Kraken by his desperate pain-induced thrashing. It was necessary to sedate the flailing monster with tranquilizer rifles before the medics could approach. As they wheeled him in, they cited the injuries they observed to the triage nurse: all major muscle groups were pulled from their ligaments and tendons. He had bitten almost completely through his tongue; and at some point in his struggles; he had broken his wrist. Several of his human-form teeth had been broken under the stress of being clenched; and evidence of frostbite surrounded nearly a dozen deep puncture wounds. Kotsubo was apparently already losing the fight before Tsukune intervened. The student police would be informed, as would the Chairman, and this incident would be investigated thoroughly. The coach would have a recovery period of months during which to think about his conduct; and Tsukune relented. As they rolled the stretcher past, he reached out with his mind, and released the stimulus he had planted.

* * *

That was days ago, and now Tsukune was on a combined camping trip with the Newspaper Club and Astronomy Club enjoying the beach and ocean together. Tsukune hated the ocean. The spot he had staked out on the beach for his towel and umbrella was geometrically the furthest point from the water's edge he could find that still had sun most of the day. Moka, of course, shared his disdain for the water, joining him under his umbrella in merciful silence. Tsukune wondered to himself if she understood that proper sunbathing was carried out in silence, leaving the participants to their thoughts. Of course, the quiet and solitude couldn't last long.

"Yahoo! Tsukune! Come into the water!" Kurumu's voice roused him from his current session of UV absorption.

"I'm fine right here, Kurumu!" Tsukune replied. "I don't swim, ever!"

After a few repetitions of that script, Kurumu finally strode over to him with a purpose. Sitting beside him, she asked, "What is it about the water, Tsu-kun? I understand the why the vampire hates it, but shouldn't you actually enjoy the water? Alligators spend most of their lives in the water, don't they?"

_Has she been reading books, or something?_ "First, I'm not an alligator; second, where did you come up with that?"

Kurumu lowered her eyes coyly. "Ever since you told us about yourself, I've been reading about reptiles. You know; the kind we have on Earth. Shouldn't they be a little bit like you, in your normal form?"

Tsukune was moderately impressed. "You'd normally be right, but there's a really good reason I don't like the water. Hold on." He reached into his beach bag and pulled out his billfold, and took out a small photograph. "Look at this," he instructed.

Leaning in to see the photo, she asked, "Is this you and your parents? You were so cute!"

"Watch," he said as he stroked the edge of the picture with a finger. The image shimmered and morphed, showing a new picture. Not a family of three humans at a temple in Kyoto, but four...lizards at a...whatever it was. Kurumu gasped in astonishment, not only at the transformation, but also at her first look at Tsukune's true from. The roughly humanoid reptilian shape was covered in impossibly fine, iridescent green scales, with a slightly more exaggerated snout than a chimpanzee, and huge, forward-looking golden eyes with vertical pupil slits. The fourth small reptilian had appeared where there was empty space in the "original" photograph.

"Wait! Who's that?" Kurumu asked.

"That was my younger sister," Tsukune said, with a note of profound sadness. "When we crashed here, it was into the ocean, off the coast of Okinawa. The ship was sinking, and my parents put me and my sister out on the hull while they got the emergency equipment."

"You never mentioned having a sister," Moka broke in, looking over Tsukune's shoulder at the photo. "What happened?" she asked quietly, knowing, somehow, with a sinking feeling, what was coming.

Tsukune took a breath, bracing himself to tell this story for the first time to any native of this planet. "A wave hit the ship, and we lost our footing. She was on a sloped part of the hull, and slid off into the water. She sank as soon as she hit the water. There was no struggling; she didn't even cry out. One second, she was there on the ship with me, the next, she disappeared into the water, as if she never existed. My mother was there just in time to stop me from jumping in after her." He smiled a mirthless, wry smile. "She still has the scars from holding me back; I was young, and still had very sharp teeth and claws."

He sighed in resignation as he returned the picture to its Earthly context, and put it away. "I've never gone near water deeper than an onsen since that day. I know how to swim; I just don't and won't, ever again."

"Oh, Tsukune," Kurumu breathed, "I'm so sorry!"

"It's alright, really. That was ten years ago, and at the time, we were too focused on our own survival and how we were going live on this planet until our rescue. It made it easier, having another immediate crisis to deal with."

"It must have been difficult, at first," Moka said. "How did you just drop into human society like that? Wasn't there a hundred things that could have gone wrong, and given you away?"

"More like a thousand," Tsukune replied. "The portable library computer we salvaged literally saved our lives. We learned the language from it, and most of what we needed for cultural norms. Our documents we made from the morpho-chromatic paper I just showed you. Looking back, Japan was the wrong place to try to fit into human society; we had a couple of narrow escapes just because of social and cultural nuances that made us seem different. After learning more about this planet, my parents were kicking themselves relentlessly for not landing off the coast of California, in the United States." He allowed himself a small chuckle. "We probably could have waded in from the ocean into San Francisco in our natural forms, and not even raised an eyebrow."

Kurumu giggled at that, and then frowned slightly, glancing out at the young witch and the snow woman, still frolicking in the water. "Speaking of narrow escapes," she said, "what do we do about the ice princess? She's determined to figure out exactly what you are, you know."

"You really think so?" Tsukune asked. "When she told us why she was stalking me, I figured that meant she would leave it be, and just report back that she couldn't find out what I was."

"How long do you think she can continue to report failure to the _Student Police_? Weeks? Months?" Moka shook her head, "No Tsukune. It seems as though she's taken a liking to you, but no one disappoints the Student Police for very long and doesn't suffer for it. We're going to have to take more direct approach to this problem."

"I could always _suggest_ that she forget all about it," Tsukune offered.

Moka's eyes narrowed dangerously. "We've discussed this already, haven't we? I'm sure Yukari brought some rope, or straps, _just in case_. Shall I call her over?"

"No! That won't be necessary!" Tsukune held his hands up in an "I surrender" gesture. "What about you, Kurumu? Couldn't you Charm her, and make sure she doesn't put her best efforts into this?"

Kurumu grimaced. "First, eewwww, she's a girl! Second, it wouldn't work for very long, if she were motivated. I would have to keep Charming her again, when she broke the spell. That brings us back to point number one: eewwww!"

Tsukune gaped in surprise. "It's not permanent? With the power you were bringing to bear before, I thought for sure it was a persistent thing."

"No," Kurumu shook her head. "There are limits. If I push a Charmed creature past their own personal limits into something they truly don't want to do, they can break it easily enough. If she's at all curious because she likes you, even a little bit, she'll be able to break the Charm. Did I mention eewwww?"

"Okay, we got it; no Charming, no suggestions. What does that leave?" Tsukune asked.

Moka blinked a few times, and Tsukune could have sworn he heard the voice of Inner Moka. Before he could ask about it, Moka spoke, "That leaves two options: violence and deception. We eliminate her, and deal with her replacement, whoever that is; or we give her something to take back to the Student Police. Let her 'find out' what kind of monster you are. Her curiosity is satisfied, the Student Police have something to write in their file, and we go about the rest of our semester."

Tsukune scowled at the first suggestion. "I will not be a party to increasing the body count at Youkai, or anywhere else! Deception is just as good as suggestion, if it gets them off my back. So, what do we let slip? What kind of monster am I?"

Moka shrugged, "Vampires don't concern themselves that much with knowing all the different types of monsters. There are vampires, and lower monsters. That covers what I was taught."

Tsukune glanced at Kurumu, "Any ideas?"

Kurumu giggled, "You're kidding, right? They hide that stuff in books, don't they? Your best bet is to ask the witch-brat. She'll have the most book-learning about monsters of any of us."

Tsukune and Moka both nodded in agreement. "I'll talk to her tonight, while we're stargazing," he decided.

* * *

Shizuka Nekonome was disappointed with the joint semester break outing so far. She had hoped that the two clubs would mix and mingle a little more freely, but was disappointed to see that only the reserved (and slightly creepy) Mizore had made any attempt to cross the line between the two clubs. For that reason, she had assigned Hatori and Mizore to accompany the Astronomy Club to their stargazing session this evening, and write a suitably fluffy article about the experience. Perhaps, she thought, if the Newspaper Club showed some interest in the Astronomy Club's activities, it would break the ice between the groups.

Moka was currently giving the two young reporters a brief rundown of the night's activities. Tsukune and Kurumu were sitting by a small campfire, opposite the clustered remainder of the Newspaper club, gazing at the flames in seeming silence.

_**Kurumu?**_ Tsukune sent his thought to the succubus.

_**Yes, I hear you**_, Kurumu replied in her mind.

_**Tell me more about your Charm**_, he thought. _**I was surprised to hear it could be broken so easily. How is that?**_

_**It's a little difficult to explain. It's not as if I can take complete control over a person. There are limits to what I can force a person to do. Most times, I don't even force. It's more as if I remove restraints from a mind where I'm the object of desire and attention.**_

_**Huh? Are you saying you free the mind more than enslave it?**_

_**Not exactly**_, Kurumu thought. _**When I take over a mind, I can bend a boy's thoughts to my will, like implanting a desire to please me. At the same time, though, a line is drawn beyond which I can't influence. I couldn't hold a servant who, for instance, had a girl they really, truly loved. If I tried to make them do something unfaithful, or forget their true love; that would push their mind over the line, and break the spell.**_

_**So it's really only with a creature's consent that you hold their mind for very long? Who draws the line?**_

_**The one who gets Charmed is the only one who can. The other thing is that most boys want to be my boyfriend, lover, and helpless slave, whatever. A lot of them would never approach me, because of their insecurity. Even my stunning body, cute face, and all-around bubbly and welcoming personality can't make them shed their nervousness. With them, my Charm removes their inhibitions and allows them to be what they want. On boys like that, my Charm is unbreakable. When I get back to school, about a third of my fanboys will have shaken the Charm I used on them, because I haven't been there to inspire them to desire me, or maintain control. Those who remain under my spell will be the more willing servants, and if I hadn't met you, candidates to be my Destined One. What? What's so funny?**_

Tsukune was chuckling to himself as she laid out her thoughts. _**Your 'bubbly and welcoming personality', indeed! You forget, Kurumu, that I've seen one of your full-frontal temper tantrums. You were almost as scary as the vampire was when you were in 'psychotic, demonic rage' mode. What would happen to your Destined One if he happened to mention you were getting a little flabby in the bottom, or he didn't like your hair?**_

_**That's easy**_, Kurumu sent back with no small amount of mischief in her tone. _**Obviously, my Destined One would never say anything so callous and hurtful, so it would be fine to suck the all of the remaining life force from his insensitive carcass.**_

The members of the Newspaper Club, on the opposite side of the fire, looked on in confusion as Kurumu and Tsukune burst out laughing for no apparent reason.

* * *

Yukari was not a happy young witch. Moka was busy giving the tag-alongs from the Newspaper Club a briefing on how a night of stargazing was conducted, while the Boob-Monster had somehow manipulated events to place herself alone with Tsukune. That left Yukari to scout a location for the Astronomy Club to set up their telescopes. She was currently looking at what could be the perfect site for amateur stargazing. Atop the cliff, overlooking the beach was a huge field of sunflowers ringed by stands of trees. There was almost nothing of a moon, and the local town was several kilometers away, and small enough not to create very much light pollution. She was mentally marking a couple of prime spots to set up when a woman's voice surprised her.

"Hello, young witch!" the voice called.

Yukari started, and turned to see a woman about twenty years old, with black hair pulled into a pair of ponytails at the sides of her head. She had dark, red-tinged eyes, and was dressed in a somewhat archaic Western fashion. Most notably, she carried a large and ornate wand, with a blue crystal set into the center of the head. She was quite obviously a fellow witch.

"You startled me! What's another witch doing all the way out here?" Yukari asked.

"I might ask you the same thing, Yukari. No matter, my name is Ruby. My master and I live in the mansion at the edge of the sunflower field, and watch over this place."

"How do you know my name?"

"I've been watching you and your friends. Why do you seek the company of such a motley collection of monsters? We witches should be among our own kind, shouldn't we?"

Yukari swelled proudly, retorting, "I go to Youkai Academy! I go there to learn how to get along with other monsters, and to live among the humans!"

"Humans!" Ruby spat. "The same humans that have gleefully raped that natural world and the very energies we rely on? The same humans that have this sacred place condemned to fall under their foul yellow machines?" Ruby noted Yukari's surprised expression. "You didn't know that, did you? Just another few acres sacrificed to their relentlessly expanding asphalt desert!"

As quickly as her tirade started, it ended, and Ruby's eyes softened. "I'm sorry, Yukari. I tend to get carried away sometimes when I think of the desecration of the green world at the hands of the humans. You seem to have friends from among many different monsters. Surely you could count one of your own as a friend, couldn't you?"

Yukari, nonplussed by the sudden shift in Ruby's personality, simply nodded. "I understand your frustration, Ruby, but not all monsters, or humans for that matter, are the same. And yes, I'd love to have a friend who understands what it is to be a witch."

Ruby rushed to Yukari, enfolding her in a warm embrace. "I'm so glad to have another friend! It's been so lonely up here, with just my Master and me. I..."

She was interrupted by a voice calling out.

"Yukari!" Tsukune's voice carried clearly on the night air.

"There you are," he said as he emerged from the tree line. "Oh. Who's your friend?" he asked.

"This is my new friend, Ruby," Yukari replied. "She's a witch, too."

"That's nice. Pleasure to meet you!" Tsukune said as he approached. As he did, he noted her aura was a pleasant change from most that he saw around Youkai. She was obviously (to him, at least) a passionate, loving, and outgoing personality; but there was something...off...about her aura.

Ruby's eyes hardened as Tsukune drew closer.

"Yukari! He's _human_! There's no sign of magical deception in his human form!"

Tsukune watched in horrified fascination as the witch's aura morphed completely. Passion was replaced by mania, and love was displaced by hatred. _Great_, he thought, _she's a multiple personality._

Ruby's youki flared, as she raised her wand. "You cannot leave this place alive, human! You will be the first to fall to us!"

"Ruby!" Yukari's shrill voice penetrated the night. "He's not one the humans trying to destroy this place! He's my friend! LEAVE HIM ALONE!" she shrieked as her own aura flared into luminescence.

As Ruby raised her wand, rustling started all around them, its source hidden from view by the tall sunflower plants. Tsukune and Yukari gaped in revulsion as a half a dozen plant monsters rose into view above the flowers. They were made of bundles of animated vines and branches, with bulbous heads. Massive, tooth-filled jaws split the huge, round heads.

"It's time to feed, my soldiers!" 'Inner' Ruby pointed her wand at the terrified Tsukune. "EAT HIM ALIVE!" she roared.

Tsukune stepped back and reflexively reached out with his mind to paralyze the creatures. A knot of fear formed in his gut as he realized he couldn't affect them at all; plants had no mind for him to manipulate. Cringing against the anticipated pain and impact, Tsukune closed his eyes, and waited for the inevitable. There was a burst of noise and activity around him, then silence. He opened his eyes to see Yukari, wobbling slightly, surrounded by a swarm of glowing Tarot cards orbiting her, the last few returning to the formation around her from the area in front of him. The clearing in the flower field was littered with the remains of the chopped up plant monsters. Ruby, her aura still flaring like a sickly purple bonfire, had taken to the air on six black-feathered wings.

"You side with the human against one of your own!" Ruby shrieked maniacally. "You can die, too, little traitor witch!"

"Yukari!" Tsukune called. "Can you handle this? My power doesn't work on these monsters!"

"I can't keep it up forever! She's too powerful!" Yukari said in a fatigued voice. "I'll do my best, though!"

"Don't worry!" Kurumu's voice came from the trees. "You have help now!"

Kurumu, Moka, and Mizore emerged from the trees, auras flaring in rage. Mizore and Kurumu advanced purposefully to stand between Tsukune and the unfamiliar witch, while Moka grabbed him by the scruff of the neck, pulling him back from the confrontation.

Ruby raised her wand again, and Tsukune didn't need to see the aura of energy she was pulling in; his human senses could feel the dreadful amount of power gathering to her. They all watched in awe, as the remains of the plant-monsters animated themselves, gathering to and surrounding the insane witch. The parts of her soldiers coalesced into a single massive entity, with Ruby embedded in the center of the awful beast.

"Ruby! Stop!" Yukari pleaded with the oblivious witch. "There's no coming back from that spell!"

Kurumu flared her wings and talons, while Mizore unleashed the full power of her own element, freezing the ground and vegetation around her. As they readied to attack, Tsukune tried to step towards Kurumu, only to be restrained by Moka's freakishly strong embrace.

"Moka, we can't kill her! She's a prisoner in a body she shares with a lunatic! The real Ruby is a total innocent!" Tsukune pleaded.

"What do you suggest? We won't be able to subdue her!"

Tsukune was already staring intently at the witch, reaching into her mind and identifying the parts of her personality. Her "Master" was her other, more hostile and violent personality, and easily differentiated from the kind and generous psyche that belonged there. He could also see the thought patterns that Ruby was using to control the massive energies she had gathered. If he was successful, the spell would be broken, and the energy released. Like a sniper taking aim on a distant target, Tsukune focused his mind on the psychological tumor that was the "Master".

"Everybody back off! This is going to be spectacular!" Tsukune called out.

Tsukune briefly remembered the lizard man he wiped, and was pleased that such an awful power could be used to heal, instead of harm. He smiled slightly as he figuratively pulled the trigger, and destroyed the evil personality that had enslaved Ruby.

"Tsukune!" Moka's scream barely penetrated his consciousness. "Don't do it! STOP!" She was too late.

Ruby gasped as the burden of the Master was erased from her mind, and the energies of the spell slipped from her control. "Thank y...," she whispered, before the magical energy released itself from her control.

The explosion was physical, as well as magical, and psychic. In a flare of light and noise like a bomb exploding, the creature Ruby had assembled disappeared, and her along with it. Kurumu, Yukari and Mizore were staggered back by the force of the detonation, falling back on their rumps. Moka, still holding Tsukune, had covered his body with hers, protecting it from the debris falling around them. Tsukune, still psychically connected to the witch, and thereby the cataclysmic release of energy, absorbed the full brunt of the backlash. As the noise subsided, Moka started to scold the willfully self-destructive alien.

"Tsukune, you idiot! Don't ever do that... Tsukune?"

Moka shook the limp form in her arms as she called his name softly. "Tsukune? Tsukune?"

Warily, Kurumu approached, afraid to see her worst fears realized. Tsukune was completely unresponsive; his mouth slack, and head lolling flaccidly. Blood was flowing freely, not just from his nose, but also seeping from his ears, soaking into the hair at the back of his head, and Moka's sundress. The Newspaper Club, on the beach below, clearly heard Kurumu's anguished scream.

"TSUKUNEEEE!"

* * *

Continued


	16. Strange Dilemma

Disclaimer: I own nothing, except the desire to entertain myself and others using other people's characters.

A/N: As a special "I'm sorry for the delay on the last update"

I have a golf buddy who's (no bullshit), a soap opera (sorry, "daytime drama") actor. Once, I asked him about the "Convenient Coma" trope, and why they use it so much. His answer: "It works."

PET Scan – Positron Emission Tomography: a method of internal imaging, very often used for scanning brain activity. Uses a radiological trace element injected into the subject.

Stranger In A Strange World  
Strange Dilemma

"_I would hurl words into this darkness and wait for an echo, and if an echo sounded, no matter how faintly, I would send other words ..., to create a sense of hunger for life that gnaws in us all."  
~ Richard Wright _

* * *

Tsukune would not wake up. Kurumu screamed at him; she shook him; she pinched him. Only Moka's quick reflexes prevented a desperate slap from connecting with his cheek. Finally, frantic with dread, Kurumu gathered his limp form into her arms and launched herself over the cliff, toward the beach below. Not wanting to waste a single second on gliding, she flared her wings just in time to make a soft landing with her precious cargo. Taken unaware by Kurumu's sudden departure, Moka, Yukari, and Mizore raced down the footpath to the seaside campsite.

"Miss Kagome! Tsukune's hurt!" she sobbed, as she burst into the teacher's tent with his unconscious body.

"What happened?" Ririko swallowed back a wave of panic, hoping against hope that it wasn't as serious as the succubus' hysterics suggested.

Choking on sobs of panic, Kurumu gasped, "Fight with a witch… powerful spell…he used his mind…broke spell…explosion of magic…blood."

"Slow down! Did he hit his head on anything? Did he fall down?"

Kurumu shook her head, wiping away tears of frustration.

_Damn!_ Ririko thought, _that means the damage is internal. What were these kids thinking?_

"Kurumu," Ririko said, only to be ignored by the panic-stricken girl. "Kurumu! Get him comfortable; move him as little as possible; start cleaning him up. We have to arrange transportation to a hospital."

Stepping outside the tent, Ririko called out towards the Newspaper Club's cluster of tents. "Shizuka!"

Shizuka was already jogging toward the tent, her curiosity aroused by the commotion. "What happened? Did I hear that someone's hurt?"

"Tsukune's seriously hurt! I need you to call the Chairman and get the bus back out here now!" Ririko shouted, as the remaining girls arrived, out of breath and disheveled from their sprint down the path.

"Surely there's somewhere closer!" Shizuka replied.

"A _human_ hospital? Are you kidding? Even if..." Ririko's statement was cut short by the squeal of brakes and the blare of a horn. _Oh, thank the spirits!_ she thought as she recognized the familiar yellow bus and its eerie driver. She decided to ask how the bus driver chose to arrive two days early another time; for the moment, she just accepted the miracle.

"Just go!" Shizuka said. "Get him on the bus and back to Youkai. My club will break your camp and clean up. We'll put all your equipment and supplies in your club room when we arrive."

Ririko turned to the girls, "Get Tsukune on that bus as quickly as possible, but be careful with him! Then, I want everyone who was there on the bus with us, no exceptions! I need answers from all of you! Go!"

* * *

Tsukune was laid across a seat on the bus with his head cradled in Kurumu's lap. The atmosphere was grim, and the silence was broken only by Ririko's quiet voice questioning the girls, and Kurumu's occasional sniffle. Yukari, after relating the details of the encounter with Ruby the witch, asked in a small, shaking voice, "Is Tsukune going to die?"

Unseen by the passengers of the bus, the driver's shoulders tensed briefly, and he shifted to an underhand grip on the steering wheel. Using the extra leverage to get the last millimeter of travel out of the accelerator, he silently answered Yukari's question to himself, _Not on _my_ bus, kid. On campus, you can tear each other to ribbons, for all I care, but you...will...not...die...on _my_ bus. _Bouncing on the accelerator slightly, he barely noticed when his teeth met through the end of his cigar.

Ririko shook her head. "No dear. We just have to get him to the off-campus hospital. The doctors there are the very best, and it's very well equipped. He'll be fine," she said, with a confidence she hoped sounded more sincere than it felt.

Finally, after what seemed to be an eternity, the bus pulled up to the emergency entrance of the monster world hospital. Ririko intercepted the triage nurse as two orderlies rolled a gurney toward the rear door of the ersatz ambulance. "He's been unconscious and non-responsive for over an hour. He's bleeding from the ears and nose, possibly because of magical trauma to his brain. He's a creature with telepathic powers, and during an altercation with a witch, mentally interfered with a very powerful spell. All the energy of the spell was released uncontrolled."

"All right," nodded the nurse. "We'll need to know what kind of monster he is."

Ririko blinked. "I don't know. Kurumu! We need to know what kind of monster Tsukune is. Do you know?"

Kurumu gaped, and hesitated. _Oh Tsukune!_ she thought, _what do I do?_

"He's human," Yukari's meek voice broke the silence. "He's a mutant; a human with a highly advanced brain and mental powers. Treat him like you would a human."

To her credit, the nurse's expression remained professionally neutral as she nodded, made a notation on her clipboard, and said, "Understood." She turned on her heel and followed the gurney bearing Tsukune through the double swinging doors into the treatment area.

As soon as the doors swung closed, Kurumu collapsed onto her hands and knees, sobbing uncontrollably as Moka and Yukari moved in to comfort her.

* * *

Doctor Gakuto Saito was fairly certain he'd seen it all in his twenty years at the monster world hospital. Burns from magical fire, lacerations and eviscerations from razor sharp claws, pulled muscles and broken bones from transformations gone horribly wrong. He was disappointed to be proven wrong, and now be treating a fifteen-year-old human for an apparent massive hemorrhagic stroke. As he and his team treated the boy, he was heartened to see signs of improvement, and an inevitable return to consciousness. If the boy survived the night, chances were excellent that he could make a full physical recovery. All he needed to do now was assess the extent of the damage done to the brain.

"Prep him for a cranial PET/CT scan. I want to see how much of this highly advanced brain he has left," he ordered.

Tsukune started to move on the stretcher, making small mewling sounds. The nurse immediately came to his side, to look into his eyes as he first opened them. She was horrified to see the young face twisted in a grimace of pain. "Doctor!" she called, just as Tsukune exploded into consciousness, screaming in agony. His eyes opened, locking on hers, and her shriek of pain joined his, as his body twitched and writhed on the bed.

Gakuto swore sulfurously as realized that his telepathic patient was sharing his pain with anyone around him with whom he could make eye contact. "Sedate him! Two amps of haldol! And cover his eyes, for Kami's sake!"

_I need that PET scan, dammit!_ he thought, as he anticipated a very long night ahead of him.

* * *

Ririko and the girls were huddled somberly in small waiting room, anxiously anticipating word from the doctor on Tsukune's condition. Hearing footsteps approaching, Ririko stood, trying to compose herself for the sake of her young charges. Her heart sank when the door opened to reveal the black uniforms of two members of the student police. She swallowed nervously when she recognized the self-style "King" of the Student Police, Kouyou, and his right hand, Keito.

Kouyou was tall, with blond hair, and a human form that was a mere sketch of a disguise. He had a fearsome reputation for negligent brutality, and his fanaticism on the subject of humans was the stuff of legends.

"I hear we have an infestation of vermin at this hospital," he sneered. "Imagine my surprise when I learned the Astronomy Club was harboring the human scum. I thought that was more of a Newspaper Club thing."

"He's not a human!" blurted Yukari. Suddenly self-conscious under his piercing gaze, she added quietly, "He's a mutant. He has as much right to be here as I do."

"Your right to be here is arguable, at best, little witch," Keito said. "It's not as if your kind are _real_ monsters."

Finally Ririko spoke, with a tone of authority that was half-hearted at best. "The Chairman has clearly stated that witches are part of the monster world, and entitled to protection and safe harbor here at Youkai. Tsukune..."

"Aono is a mutant human," Kouyou interrupted, "and the Chairman has made no such declaration protecting that particular breed of vermin." He turned to Keito. "Keito, find that human, and exterminate him right now. Punish any who oppose you."

Keito turned to the door, and gasped in surprise to find the white-robed and hooded form of the Chairman himself occupying the doorway. "Kouyou..." she said.

"**...is correct. I have not made any declaration protecting mutated humans who might be mistaken for, and oppressed or hunted as monsters…until now.**" The Chairman's multi-tonal voice reverberated through the room, being felt as much as it was heard by the group, as he stepped into the room. **"So there is no question, I will say this clearly: any creature that fears discovery by normal humans is welcome to enjoy the haven offered by Youkai Academy. That includes mutant humans, like the Aono boy. Am I clear?"**

Kouyou gritted his teeth in frustration. "Perfectly, sir," he spat, before turning and leading Keito from the room.

"**Miss** **Kagome,**" the Chairman turned his dark gaze to the teacher. "**We are unable to contact the boy's parents in the human world. I am relying on you to act in his best interest as his temporary guardian until we do. Is that understood?**"

"Yes sir!" Ririko replied. "Sir, are you saying you knew that Tsukune was human all along?"

The Chairman chuckled. "**Yes. We select one human each year to attend this school alongside the usual class of monsters. They rarely survive past the first week of club activities, due to their poor choices of clubs to join. Aono was the lucky human this year. That he was gifted in any way was...unanticipated.**"

"You didn't know he was special?" Kurumu gasped. "You brought a human here, threw him in among the monsters without any protection or warning? What did you expect to happen?"

"**I expected that one year, some very special human might survive to show you children that being a monster or human is secondary to being friends and companions**," he replied, looking pointedly around the room. "**The fact that I see before me a succubus, a witch, an ice woman, and a vampire, all commiserating over the welfare of a human exceeds my expectations.**"

Without another word, he turned and strode out of the room.

* * *

It was another four hours before Doctor Saito entered the room to update Ririko on Tsukune's condition. Bile threatened to rise in her throat as she saw the haggard and strained look in the doctor's eyes.

"First," he started, "Tsukune can still make a full recovery, physically. He's no longer bleeding into his brain, and there's no physical trauma associated with any other part of his body."

"But…" Ririko said, noting the qualification the doctor had attached to "full recovery."

Gakuto removed his glasses, and pinched the bridge of his nose, unsuccessfully attempting to will the fatigue away. "He's in a medically induced coma and quarantined for the safety of my staff. We had to sedate him so deeply that he's effectively comatose, and we have to keep him that way."

He withdrew several sheets with colorful images on them from a folder. "This is a Positron Emission Tomography, or PET scan. With it, we can measure levels of brain activity, and where the highest level of activity is occurring. Here is a normal human's PET scan," he said as he laid out the chart. "Mostly blue, or low-level, with regions of high-level activity in the center, shown in yellow. Here is Tsukune's."

The girls leaned in to see a chart that was almost completely filled in with orange or yellow color.

"His brain is the most advanced and active I've ever seen on a human being. He has easily twice the fissures and folds that you would find in a normal human brain, and we can measure activity in regions of the brain that humans simply do not use. It's quite simply extraordinary. And that's the problem."

He paused, looking around the room. "Has he always had the powers you saw, or did he start to develop more or stronger powers recently?"

Moka fidgeted her fingers, casting her eyes down at the floor. "Some of them are new. They developed after I…after he…after he absorbed some of my vampire Youki. It hurt him the first time, but after that, he said he could handle it. Was that it? Did I cause this?" she asked in a horrified whisper.

Yukari wrapped her arms around Moka, squeezing as hard as she could. "Stop that! It was an accident, right? You didn't mean for anything to happen, and you couldn't have stopped it!"

"The young witch is right," Gakuto said. "The problem is that a human's brain is not fully developed until his early twenties or so. You may have accelerated the development of his powers, but not by five or more years. This was inevitable."

"So why," asked Yukari, "do you have him sedated into a coma? Why not just wake him up?"

"His brain has been progressively damaged. The latest incident will have caused a noticeable loss of cognitive function and reasoning ability. He will not be the same boy you knew, even if we allow him to wake. There has also been damage to the higher-functioning control centers. That's why he cannot be allowed to regain consciousness yet. He cannot control his telepathic powers. If he wakes, his power will lash out uncontrollably, further damaging his brain. It will literally destroy itself, like an engine that's run far past its red line. If anyone is in the room with him, they will very likely suffer significant brain damage as he burns himself out."

"So what are you going to do?" Kurumu asked, starting to shed fresh tears from her already red and puffy eyes. "How do you fix it?"

Gakuto sighed in resignation. "We don't know if we _can_ fix it. What we do know is that we are just barely able to keep him down in the coma. His brain wants to wake up. He will eventually develop a tolerance to the sedative, and wake up." He looked pointedly at Ririko. "We _need_ to contact his parents before that happens."

"His parents? Why?" asked Ririko.

"Normally options like this are presented to the patient. In this case…" He paused, rubbing the bridge of his nose again. "If nothing changes, he will inevitably wake up, and about two minutes after that, his brain will start flinging its power around. It will take him roughly twenty minutes to die, alone and screaming in pain the entire time. At least here in the monster world, patients can be given the option of bypassing a fate like that."

* * *

Kurumu was leaving a trail of destruction behind her. After fleeing the small waiting room in tears, she ran aimlessly, desperately hoping to outrun the despair clutching her soul. Her Destined One was destined all right; destined to die young, alone and in pain, if the doctor was right. Eventually, she found herself in the very same grove of trees where he first stood up to an angry vampire on her behalf. The two trees she had slashed were still there, a silent monument to their brief clash. She ran her fingers over the stumps, almost reverently as her desolation started to disappear. Her anguish was being burned away by another emotion, blossoming white-hot in her chest.

Rage.

Screaming in fury at an unfair and callous Destiny, she flailed about the grove with her talons, felling another six trees. Seemingly satisfied with that, she continued to her dormitory, leaving a trail of furrows in the walls of the corridors leading to her room. Once in her room, she turned her attention to the breakable objects in her field of view. Figurines, crockery, and a hand mirror met a violent fate against the four walls of her dorm room. After shredding her bed linens and futon with her talons, she finally collapsed on her floor, emotionally and physically spent.

It was nearly two in the morning when Kurumu awoke with a start. Like an automaton, she got herself some water, cupping it in her hands after finding no intact drinking glasses in the room.

_Stupid doctors_, she thought. _Fixing people is your job! It's what you do! I'll bet Tsukune's smart enough to fix it! Tsukune's smarter than three of you bozos put together!_ Kurumu stopped, as if slapped out of her daze. _It can't be that easy, can it?_

Fifteen minutes later, Kurumu was back at the hospital, being escorted to Intensive Care Unit of the off-campus Youkai Hospital by a wonderfully cooperative orderly. A few minutes after that, a very accommodating charge nurse took her to Tsukune's room, and unlocked the door. She gasped in dismay at the sight of her Destined One.

Tsukune's eyes were bandaged in white gauze, and an impossibly large drain protruded from his nose to a bag that hung beside the bed. Intravenous bags were suspended on both sides of the bed, with tubes carrying fluids and drugs to his veins. Coils of wires emerged from under his hospital gown, connected to equipment that she couldn't name if her life depended on it. The glowing screen beside the bed showed a squiggly line representing of the rhythm of his heart; her Destined One's heart.

Pulling a chair up beside the bed, she gingerly took his hand in hers and just held it for a few minutes, listening to the sound of his breathing. Uttering a short prayer of apology and appeal to Fate and Destiny, she gathered herself, focusing her mind like she never had before. Pouring every drop of her concentration and feelings into her effort, she sent her thought to his slumbering mind.

_**Tsukune, can you hear me?**_

Continued


	17. Strange Liberation

Disclaimer: I own nothing, except the desire to entertain myself and others, using other people's characters.

A/N:

Stranger In A Strange World  
Strange Liberation

"_O, let me suffer being at your beck  
The imprison'd absence of your liberty,  
And patience, tame to sufferance, bide each check  
__Without accusing you of injury."  
~ Sonnet LVIII, William Shakespeare (excerpt)_

* * *

Mizore walked quietly along the path back to the girl's dormitory, reflecting quietly on the night's events. Tsukune was, indeed, the "Human Infiltrator", sort of. The revelation that he was some kind of mutant human was very unexpected, and she found herself trying to reassess how she felt about the enigmatic telepath. In fact, she was so immersed in her thoughts that she completely failed to notice the path ahead was blocked. The number of times in her life that she had been startled by the presence of another creature could be counted on one hand.

Despite her supernatural stealth and awareness, she almost collided with Moka and Yukari before finally registering their presence. The two girls were standing in the middle of the path; Moka had her arms folded, and was half-turned away from Mizore, and the pre-teen witch was facing her squarely, glaring suspiciously with her wand a the "half ready" position. Mizore, now recovered, backed up a step; she recognized hostility when she saw it.

Moka's voice was cold, her green eyes tinting slightly red as she spoke, "We have a question for you, Shirayuki."

"Yeah," Yukari added petulantly. "We know you've been stalking Tsukune for the Student Police! How did Kouyou find out about Tsukune so quickly? It took barely fifteen minutes for that butcher to show up looking for a human, and no one even uttered the word 'human' until last night, in the emergency garage. Was it you? Did you turn him in?"

Mizore regarded the two silently for a moment. "No," she deadpanned, "I did not."

"How can we believe that?" Moka asked, the rosary at her throat glowing faintly red. "You were the only one that would have a reason to inform on him. Tell us why we should believe you."

The snow woman betrayed no emotion as she said, "Because I can't…I couldn't. I know you all like him; I learned that much the first week I was watching him. It only took me two more weeks of observation to find out why you like him so much; and why I do, too."

"I couldn't turn him in," she said quietly, "because I think I'm in love with him."

Moka's eyes narrowed and tinted an even deeper red as she said, "What was that, again?"

_

* * *

(Orion Spur of the Milky Way Galaxy: approximately 10.5 light-years from Sol...)_

It was a straightforward, nearly featureless, white cylindrical object. The design was uncomplicated, and robust; a marvel of Commonwealth engineering. The automated probe was a simple container for sensors and telemetry to map the emptiness of interstellar space. Probes like this drifted through the void by the hundreds, silently watching, sampling, gathering, and reporting. They, and their missions, would far outlive their designers and masters.

Even interstellar travel has its limitations, and these probes were a direct result of a major drawback of continuum distortion faster-than-light travel. Einstein, apparently, was correct. Nothing exceeded the velocity of light. Nothing. Tsukune's people, along with most of the Galactic Commonwealth traveled between the stars by stretching and shrinking space itself. A ship would "anchor" itself to a stellar gravity well and orient its navigation array to its destination star. As the craft poured profane amounts of energy into the fabric of space, space itself shrank, until the target star was close enough to anchor onto while the craft released its gravimetric connection to its departure point. The ship itself never moved; space was allowed to snap back to normal around it, leaving the craft in the gravity well of the destination star. It was effectively immediate, and usually, very reliable. The disadvantage of this nearly instantaneous method of star-to-star travel was that the vast expanse of space between the stars remained unreachable by piloted craft. To explore the void, automated probes were deployed; first by the dozens, then by the hundreds.

This particular probe drifted languidly in the space between stars, searching for dark matter, collecting interstellar dust, and listening for a broad band of electromagnetic, gravity, and photometric disturbances with its super-advanced array of sensors.

By the same defiance of probabilities that produce life-bearing planets in ternary star systems, this probe had interposed itself into the path of a five-minute burst of radio frequency energy in transit from a solar system centered on a medium-sized G-type star. As RF energy washed over its sensors, previously idle processors and algorithms surged into activity, identifying the Commonwealth emergency signal headers in the transmission. Having captured the transmission, the probe dutifully oriented itself on the Beta Pictoris star system, powered up its tachyon pulse communications array, and repeated the brief burst of static at precisely timed intervals, and would continue to do so until it received acknowledgment.

_**

* * *

Tsukune, can you hear me?**_

_**Kurumu? What the…**_ Tsukune's thoughts were faint, and slightly muffled, as if he was on the other side of a closed door. If he had been speaking, Kurumu would also have sworn that he had too much to drink. She had to concentrate very hard to hear him clearly. _**I thought you said a succubus didn't invade men's dreams.**_

Kurumu almost shed tears in relief._** Are you dreaming, Tsukune? What is your dream about?**_

_**It's not pleasant, Kurumu. I keep dreaming that I've been locked up in a dark room. I can see a thin, faint line of light under a door, and hear people talking on the other side; but I can't get the door open, or really hear what the people outside the room are saying. I kick at the door, hit it with my shoulder, and yell for the people outside to open it; but just when I think I might open it, I get tired and dream starts all over again. I think I'm getting closer to opening it, though.**_

Kurumu's eyes widened in horror as the symbolism fell into place. _**Tsukune! Stop trying to open that**__** door! Just stop, okay?**_

_**Why? What's going on, Kurumu?**_ A note of anxiety entered Tsukune's thoughts. _**I'm not dreaming, am I? What's happened?**_

_**You had a hemo…, a hemma…, **_Kurumu paused, trying to remember the doctor's words.

_**A hemorrhagic stroke? Is that it?**_

_**Yes! They say you're in a coma right now, **_Kurumu's thoughts brightened._** But if we can reach each other like this, that can't be right, can it?**_

_**I'm not sure, Kurumu. I've read that coma patients can wake up years later, remembering conversations **__**that happened around them.**_ Tsukune paused. _**I need to know exactly what the doctor said. Just replay the conversation in your mind a few times, so I can hear his words they way you heard them.**_

Kurumu reluctantly recalled the doctor's briefing, biting her lip as she relived the pain of hearing her Destined One's death sentence pronounced yet again.

Tsukune's thoughts were silent as he absorbed the truth of his situation. _**The doc's right about one thing**_, he thought. _**If there are no treatment options, slip**__**ping away quietly under a medication overdose might be the best way to go.**_

_**NO!**_ Kurumu's thought rang in his mind. _**I am **_**not**_** letting you go that easily! Come on, Tsukune, think! You're smarter than any three of these quacks put together. Surely, you ca**__**n come up with something! Giving up isn't going to help!**_

_**I'm **_**not**_** giving up yet, but denying reality isn't going to help me, either, Kurumu. I have to look at the situation as clearly and candidly as possible.**_

"What, exactly, are you doing in here, young lady?"

Kurumu jumped in surprise at the new voice in the room. Doctor Saito stood in the open door of the room with his arms folded in irritation, and Ririko just outside the door, peering into the room. "This patient is under quarantine! Get out of here immediately!"

"Wait!" Kurumu cried. "We're communicating! He can talk to me! I can talk to him!"

"That's ridiculous!" snorted Ririko. "He's in a coma! How could you possibly…"

A touch on her arm from the doctor interrupted her. "Wait, Miss Kagome. It's not out of the question. Many coma patients report awareness of their surroundings and events after waking." He turned to Kurumu, "How are you doing this?"

Kurumu swallowed nervously. "We started talking with our minds a few weeks ago. He said he could pick up thoughts that were directed at him, so I tried, and it worked. He says he understands the situation. He thought it was a dream, at first, but now he knows where he is, and why. I was telling him that we need his help to find a solution."

"I still don't believe it," said Ririko, more gently this time. "Kurumu, we understand how desperate you are for this to be true, but you can't seriously expect us to believe…" Her voice trailed off as Kurumu closed her eyes and her face took on a look of intense concentration.

"The value of Pi," Kurumu recited, "is three-point-one-four-one-five-nine-two-six." As Ririko's eyes widened she continued. "The solution to the average magnitude of a continuous encapsulated vector field is arrived at by solving the triple integral of the continuous function 'z' of 'x' and 'y'…"

"Alright!" Ririko held up her hands in defeat. "If that isn't Tsukune, then I don't know who it is!"

"So," Saito asked, "what suggestions does he have for us?"

"We can't fix his brain, right?" Kurumu repeated for Tsukune, receiving a disappointed shake of the head from the doctor.

"His powers are completely out of control, right?" A nod, this time.

_**Kurumu, I think I've got it!**_ Tsukune thought.

"What? Spit it out!"

_**How does Moka keep th**__**at huge amount of vampire power from spilling out?**_ he asked.

Kurumu gasped in delighted awe. "Her rosary! We need a _seal_ for your powers!"

* * *

"Moka! Yukari!"

The vampire and witch turned away from Mizore to see a breathless Kurumu approaching at a full run.

"What's happened? Is Tsukune alright?" Moka asked.

Kurumu held up a finger as she caught her breath. After a few moments, she answered, "No change, as far as his condition. But…I _talked_ to him, telepathically!"

"What?" Moka and Yukari blurted in harmony. "How?"

"It's a long story, and not really important. What _is_ important is that my brilliant Destined One has an idea about how to wake up without immediately frying his brains!" Kurumu pointed at Moka's chest and said, "We need one of those!"

"My rosary?" Moka clutched involuntarily at her own seal. "If he needs it, he can have it, but how do we get it off? I can't release it myself."

Yukari shook her head, as she said, "I don't think Moka's rosary would work; it's made to contain a specific type of energy. However, that doesn't mean that we couldn't find _something_ that would contain his telepathic powers. Given time and study, _I_ could enchant a ring or a bracelet to do it. It would be expensive and time-consuming, but I could do it!"

"How long would it take?" asked Kurumu.

Yukari cast her eyes down at the ground. "Probably too long."

"He definitely doesn't have a lot of time," Kurumu replied quietly. She turned her gaze to Moka. "Where did your rosary come from? Maybe whoever gave it to you could tell us where to find what we need for Tsukune."

"My father gave it to me. And he was the one that made it. I don't know if that helps."

"Find out if he'll help us," Kurumu instructed. "In the meantime, Doctor Saito and Miss Kagome are making an appointment for us to see the Chairman. They say he has a huge collection of artifacts and charms. Maybe he already has something that can help." She turned to Yukari. "Yukari…"

"I'll get started on an enchanted seal of my own," the young witch interrupted. "We need a plan B, and I might be able to take a short cut or two."

Kurumu looked around in puzzlement. "Wasn't that Shirayuki girl here with you two?"

* * *

"The Chairman will see you now," said the puzzled assistant, with a note of confusion. The Chairman saw _no one_ on such short notice, let alone a lowly student, teacher, or doctor. Such monsters, she thought, were far below the notice of a Hades Lord charged with the administration of Youkai Academy. Nonetheless, she ushered Kurumu, Ririko, and Gakuto into the dimly lit office, closing the arched double doors behind them.

"Master Chairman…" Ririko started.

"**I know why you're here, Kagome. I am sympathetic to ****the plight of young Aono, but why should I break a long-standing policy of non-interference with respect to the welfare of our human test cases?"** The Chairman's reverberating voice echoed eerily in the large office. **"What makes this boy so special?"**

Ririko swallowed, and said, "You said it best yourself. He's exceeded your expectations, after so many before him have failed. He's not like any other human boy any of us have met. In time, he could be the catalyst to make friends of monsters and humans, couldn't he?"

"That's true!" Kurumu blurted, stepping forward to face the ominous, white-robed administrator. "Look at what he's done, befriending a succubus, a vampire, a witch, and a yuki-onna? Isn't a human like him the reason Youkai even _exists_? Don't we wish _all_ humanity and monsters could be like him?"

"**You have made ****your point, child**," he rumbled. "**What is it you ask of me, that the good doctor cannot do?**"

"It's suggested," Doctor Saito said, "that his out-of-control powers could be contained by a seal, or magical charm of some kind. While it's not a medical solution, where the welfare of my patient is concerned, I'll be as open-minded as I have to be."

"**You may yet have the chance to prove the truth of that statement**." The Chairman turned to Ririko. "**As his interim guardian, I must tell you that no such charm or device exists, to my knowledge, which can help young Aono.**"

"No!" exclaimed Kurumu. "There has to be! Don't we live in a world of magical and supernatural wonders? What _good_ is the monster world, if it's as limited as the human one?" The Hades Lord was chuckling softly, his eerie grin becoming wider as she spoke. "What's so damn funny about that?"

"**Kurono**," he said, "**you obviously still have some evolving to do. What good is a magical bauble against the extreme limit of natural wonder that Aono represent****s? We do indeed live in a world of magical wonders, but Aono is a natural phenomenon. His power is a thing of mind, controlled by his mind. Why do you think other monsters have such meager ability to resist his mind, or yours, for that matter? In a con****test between nature and magic, nature always wins.**"

"Then what…"

"**The ability to save Aono has always been within you, young **_**succubus**_**. He cannot control his power, because he cannot control his mind. Can you truly not think of a way of asserting control over his mind?**"

Kurumu gasped softly, raising a hand to her mouth. "Surely it can't be that simple! All I have to do is Charm him; _I_ can be his control?"

The Chairman was laughing aloud now. "**Simple? '**_**All**_** you have to do is Charm him?' Hah!**" His gaze, despite its being hidden from her under his hooded robe, seemed to bore into her. **"What do think will happen if you do Charm him? Hmm? Would he become your doting slave, your helpless thrall? Gushing with gratitude for saving his existence?"**

"Well, yes," Kurumu said tentatively. "But I wouldn't take advantage of it! I love him! I couldn't treat him like just any other boy in my harem!"

"**Could **_**you**_** be **_**his**_** slave? Would you be able to subjugate your every desire on him to his needs? Could you gi****ve up, perhaps forever, what you wish for yourself, in order to keep him safe?"**

"What do you mean?"

"**What will happen when you try to take from him more than he is ready or willing to give? What will happen when you push too hard to have your way over him?"**

She looked down at the rich carpet, as a feeling of dread crept in to contaminate the hope she felt only a moment ago. Her voice was very quiet. "The Charm would break, and…"

"**And Aono would die."**

* * *

"The Chairman made me responsible for him until his parents could be contacted!" Ririko was adamant that the final decision to proceed with the Charm option would rest with her. "Even if you do contact him and ask him, we would only have your word that he's agreed."

Kurumu's eyes grew flinty. "You think I would lie about something like that? For what, just to get one more boy under my thumb?"

"You are a succubus, Kurumu. Don't you think your instinctive drives could lead you to lie, even to yourself, about your true motivations?"

"Before two months ago? Maybe. Now? Not a chance. I've taken his advice to heart, and I hope I've evolved," Kurumu replied earnestly. "He sacrificed himself to try to protect us, and save that witch from her alter ego, or evil twin persona, or whatever it was." Kurumu leaned close to Ririko, locking eyes with her and pouring the intensity she felt into her gaze. "I _will not_ taint his sacrifice by doing any less myself."

Ririko looked thoughtfully at the young succubus, and finally came to a decision.

"Ask him."

* * *

Once again, at Tsukune's bedside, Kurumu sent her thoughts to the unconscious boy.

_**Tsukune?**_

_**Kurumu? Did you guys come up with anything? Is there some kind of magical seal or charm that can help me?**_

_**Not exactly. The Chairman himself told us there's no magical item that would contain your natural powers. 'In a contest between magic and nature, nature always wins', he said.**_

_**So what's the 'exactly' part? Is there some other way to contain my power until I learn to control it again?**_

_**Yes, Tsukune, one charm will control your powers; mine. If I Charm you, and maintain control over your mind, I can also contain your powers.**_ Kurumu waited silently for a reaction.

_**Oh. That's…interesting. Are you certain it would work?**_

_**Doctor Saito says it's one-hundred percent. He scanned one of my Charmed Ones brains, just to be sure. My Charm takes over certain parts of the brain, and synchs them up with my thought patterns. One of those parts is where your powers are centered.**_

_**You don't take over the whole brain? Just parts?**_ Tsukune asked, perplexed.

_**Trust me, I was as surprised as you are.**_

_**Look Kurumu, it's not like I don't appreciate the effort, but to give up control like that, it's…a little scary.**_

_**I know, Tsukune. I'm actually a little scared about it, too. If I push too hard, and break the Charm…**_

_**Oh. Gotcha. Control gone; powers unleashed; slow, painful death.**_

_**Listen, Tsukune. Doctor Saito's out of ideas for a permanent solution. He needs your help to work something out. You need to be conscious to be any help to him. Let me help you this way. You'll still have enough control to ask me to back off when I'm pushing, and I promise I will. Please, Tsukune, you saved my life that day in the forest. Let me help save yours.**_

Tsukune sifted through the thoughts he was receiving, searching for any hints of subterfuge, or doubt; there were none.

_**Okay, Kurumu, it looks like you have another fanboy for your harem.**_

* * *

Doctor Saito insisted on two hours to prepare "countermeasures in the event of failure". Kurumu simply nodded, promising to return at the agreed upon time. She had one last item of preparation of her own to take care of.

Two hours later, Doctor Saito was instructing Kurumu, and through her, Tsukune.

"Here," he indicated two pen-like instruments on a small tray table, "are two auto-injectors loaded with Haloperidol. It's very potent sedative. If anything goes wrong, jam the end forcefully into a muscle at the shoulder or thigh, and it will inject a large dose of the drug, and render Tsukune comatose once again. He will take them with him when he leaves. If the Charm ever breaks, he will need to be injected immediately, to prevent further brain damage."

He was unwrapping Tsukune's eyes as he continued. "I cannot stay in the room while we allow him to wake, so you need to revive him. This pump on my side is feeding him sedative; it must be turned off, here." He indicated a membrane key on the face of the intravenous pump. "The pump on your side is a mild stimulant. When you are sure you're ready, turn it on the same way you turned this one off." He paused a moment. "Are you both ready?"

Kurumu grasped Tsukune's hand, and communed with him a moment, then nodded.

"Very well; I'll be monitoring your progress from the nurse's station. Best of luck," he said as he closed and locked the door behind him.

Kurumu shut off the sedative pump, and then, taking a breath, turned on the stimulant pump. Straddling his legs so she could make immediate eye contact, she cradled his face in her hands.

_**I've started it Tsukune**_, she sent her thought to his mind. _**You'll be waking soon. Just look into my eyes, and let go; I'll be as gentle as I can.**_

_**Heh. I can't wait to meet all my new friends**_, he thought with a dryly-humorous tone.

_**New friends? What are you talking about?**_ Kurumu asked.

_**The rest of the Kurumu Kurono Harem; you know, your other Charmed fanboys.**_Tsukune's thoughts became clearer and more distinct as his level of consciousness rose.

_**Oh**_, Kurumu thought_**, that. Well, this was supposed to be a surprise, but I might as well tell you now. **__**There is no harem. In a few minutes, the Kurumu Kurono Harem will have exactly one esteemed member: Tsukune Aono. I let the rest of them go.**_

_**You didn't…you know…**_

_**They're all alive and well, with their life force intact**_. Kurumu could feel Tsukune's impending awakening and the pressure starting to build in his mind. _**Remember, Tsukune, look in my eyes**__**, **_she reminded.

Tsukune stirred, moaning softly, and opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was a pair of luminous violet eyes. As Kurumu's voice whispered into his mind, he felt her power, as if a woolen blanket was being thrown over his conscious mind, and smothering his control under her own. Instead of flinging the blanket away, and resisting, he grasped it tightly to himself, and submitted completely to her control.

Continued


	18. Strange Feelings

Disclaimer: I own nothing, except the desire to entertain myself and others, using other people's characters.

A/N: Only a few chapters left to go!

Stranger In A Strange World  
Strange Feelings

"_It is difficult to know at what moment love begins; it is less difficult to know that it has begun."  
~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow  
_

_

* * *

(Three days ago: Geosynchronous orbit of Sol-3, 36,000km above Honshu.)_

Kasumi Aono's eyes fluttered open, stinging from the brilliant white light above her. Just as she moved her arm to shield them, a familiar face entered her field of view, blocking the lights. Her husband, Touji, smiled encouragingly.

"Welcome back. They tell me you fainted the moment they said your given name," he said. "You always did swoon at the drop of a hat, but I can't fault you for this one. _I_ almost fainted when they dropped by the office."

"Where are we?" she asked.

"We're in the medical bay of the Commonwealth Search and Rescue vessel _Sso'kiss_. The contact team nearly panicked when you collapsed, and rushed you here, rather than revive you on the surface." Touji noted the disbelieving look in his wife's eyes. "It's for real. A remote probe intercepted our radio distress call by pure fluke from about ten light-years out. It retransmitted the call to Central Telemetry, and Central Telemetry notified Fleet. We're going Home, honey; fifty years earlier than we could have hoped."

"Tsukune! Where is he?" she started to sit up impatiently.

"Relax," Touji eased her back to the examination bed. "They're tracking his transponder signal now. He's on one of the southernmost beaches on the Mainland, probably on his semester break class outing. They want us to wrap up our affairs in Kanagawa before we accompany the contact team to retrieve Tsu-kun. Get some more rest, the Commander wants to speak with us in a few hours."

True to his word, the Commander summoned the ersatz humans to a small conference room, where he outlined procedures and protocol that would be followed. The family was to make a legitimate departure from their earthly lives. A legal expert would be engaged via fax to dispose of their assets; their friends would be notified by telephone, fax, or e-mail of their imminent "relocation to South America"; Touji's consulting firm would be turned over legally to his most senior engineer. The disappearance of the Aono family was not to be fodder for any official investigation or conspiracy theory. Each and every human contact they maintained would be assessed for the risk that their true nature was suspected or known, and for the probable impact in a worst-case scenario. In all, the S&R vessel, and its Fleet escort would remain in high orbit for about three weeks, then it would fold its way Home, presumably with Earth's quarantine status and ignorance of the Galactic Commonwealth still intact.

"Expect," the Commander continued, "a _comprehensive_ debrief when you arrive Home. You will be fully examined by the biologists and psychologists in your current physical form. Your long-term exposure to this pre-interstellar culture will be harvested for every scrap of useful data against the day we finally make first contact with them. Only after your debrief will you be returned to your original form."

"Now, if you'll accompany me to the bridge, we'll get an update on your hatchling's activities tonight."

The bridge of the vessel was a study in organized chaos, to the untrained eye. Soft, sibilant voices floated through the air, creating a background of continuous white noise. Reptilian officers strode from station to station, looking over the shoulders of the technicians, and conferring with each other in hushed tones, while the technicians themselves monitored the status of every aspect of the ship's operation and activity both on the surface below, and in orbit around them. A few quizzical glances were thrown at the pair of soft, pink 'humans'. The Commander indicated a workstation with a large tactical display that was currently showing a map of a seaside area. Prominently indicated in bright green, a small circle showed the location of Tsukune Aono; or more accurately, Tsukune's wristwatch.

"Here," indicated the technician "is your son's transponder signal. He's not been very active, and stays well away from the edge of the water."

"Can you tell who's with him, or what he's doing?" asked Kasumi, as she watched the screen in wonder.

"Not really." The technician glanced at the Commander, who nodded slightly. "We're operating on passive sensors only. The locals have enough communications and navigation satellites that we must be cautious about any active transmissions."

The Commander chuckled softly. "It would hardly do to give ourselves away to the natives, after you amateurs managed to avoid their detection for so long, would it? Come with me." He waved toward a vacant workstation on the opposite side of the bridge. "Here is where you will work to produce any documents or communiqués required to mask your departure. We can access the human's communications and data networks for brief periods with minimal risk, so we'll ask that you use electronic messages as much as possible. Keep direct voice communications to minimum. You can start…"

"Commander!" The technician monitoring Tsukune's transponder called across the bridge. "I'm reading some odd energy emissions from the subject's position."

"What do you mean, odd?" the Commander retorted. "Be specific!"

"It's a mixture of low-level electromagnetic and psi spectrum energy being released. It's under intelligent control. That's all I can tell without going active!"

"What's going on?" Kasumi asked anxiously. "What's happening down there?"

Touji grasped her arm, trying to calm her. "Settle down. We can't help him from up here, and he's smart enough to avoid trouble. Let these people do their jobs."

Kasumi shot him a dark look, promising further discussion of the matter at a later time, but nodded and stared at the display, willing the green dot to move away from the disturbance.

All eyes were on the transponder display when a red circle, ten times the size of the green spot, flared into existence, and faded slowly.

"Large energy release! Multiple spectra!" called the technician.

"Our subject?" asked the Commander.

"No movement. Wait! Moving now, moving quickly away from the burst."

"Good boy, Tsukune," said Touji quietly to himself.

"What are we going to do?" asked Kasumi with a note of panic.

"For now," said the Commander, "we wait. If he's stationary for long enough, we'll pick him up tonight."

"Signals Officer!" called the Commander. "Start analyzing that energy release. I want to know what the source was, how much and what type of energy was involved."

"Subject's on the move again!" called the tracking technician. "Faster now. Probably on a vehicle of some sort."

"Stay on top of it," said the Commander. "I want to know the instant it comes to a …"

"Signal lost! No transponder feedback! It just…disappeared!"

"Lost? What do you mean lost?"

"The transponder no longer transmits. We are receiving nothing but static on the designated frequency."

"That doesn't happen easily," Touji said. "The unit we gave him was damn near indestructible, should still have ninety-eight percent of its battery left, and cannot be turned off."

"Could it be damaged by the energy release?" asked the Signals Officer.

"Unlikely. It's one of the most robust pieces of technology we can produce."

"So," added the Commander, "something is probably blocking the signal, or interfering. And these native 'humans' should not have the capability to do so." He paused for a moment, considering his options. "Signals Officer, you are authorized to scan in an active mode, with maximum precautions, on my authority. I want every meter of that island mass cataloged. Start at the point of signal loss."

Looking at the distraught couple, he felt a brief pang of empathy. He was not a particularly callous reptile, but he had a job to do.

"You two, clear my bridge, please. I'll contact you when we have something to report."

"But.." Kasumi looked helplessly at the Commander.

"Ma'am," he said, "If I have to bombard every square millimeter of that island with tachyon particles, I _will_ locate your boy. I promise you that, but my officers and I need the bridge to ourselves."

* * *

Tsukune was awake. His world was violet; and brilliant. His ears were filled with the sound of rushing water. He was immersed in comforting warmth, despite the flimsy hospital gown he was wearing. The rushing sound receded, and as his eyes adjusted to the light, the violet coalesced into twin lilac pools framed by azure. Finally, as the white noise faded to silence, his brown eyes found focus on Kurumu's face, and returned her gaze with a glassy and faraway stare of his own. For a few brief moments, his thoughts were a scramble of disjointed scraps of sensations, perceptions, and reactions, and unfamiliar waves of emotions crashed over his consciousness. Finally, his awareness worked out that he was now firmly connected to his succubus mistress, and the miasma of thoughts and feelings were the random combination of his own and Kurumu's. It took a few more instants before he was able to sort through the intertwined mass of emotions, and realize that the relief, happiness, and flush of success were mostly Kurumu's feelings at the moment.

_Very slick_, he thought with a sense of admiration. _If I'm sharing her f__eelings at this level, I'm obviously going to do my damnedest to make sure they're good ones._

_**I thought you might like it**_, she replied to his mind. _**Mind you, there are other aspects to this level of connection and control. Aren't you even going to thank **__**me for helping you join the land of the living?**_

Seized by an irresistible compulsion, he wrapped his arms around her and rested his head on her shoulder. Clinging to her as if his very life flowed from her, he closed his eyes again, and whispered, "Thank you, Kurumu-sama. Thank you." At that, Tsukune felt a wave of well-blended euphoria, and longing well up in himself as Kurumu's arms moved to return his embrace. Kurumu held the hug for a few seconds, enjoying a rush of ecstasy from his acknowledgement of her mastery. Finally, pushing down the temptation to explore the further implications of being embraced by a nearly-nude Tsukune on a bed, she broke the embrace, and turned his head by his chin to face her.

"Kurumu," she said. "It's Kurumu, just like it was before."

"But, Kurumu-sam…" Tsukune's protest was silenced by firm eye contact, and an unspoken _**Hush!**_

"The day we are mated," Kurumu said, as Tsukune tingled with a surge of hope and longing, "I will give you plenty of reasons to call me 'Kurumu-sama'. It might be the _only_ thing you say for two days afterwards. Until that day, I am simply Kurumu. Understood?"

Tsukune felt a tiny flare in his mind, a brief rebellion against being commanded so firmly, but it was quickly extinguished by gentle yet firm pressure. "Yes, Kurumu, I understand," he heard himself say.

For Kurumu, it was a "good news, bad news, good news" proposition.

The good news: The Charm was effective, and holding back his powers exactly as advertised. Tsukune was out of immediate danger, and would remain so, as long as he stayed under Kurumu's Charm. Provided that Kurumu minimized her 'active' use of the Charm, and relied on the 'automatic' desire to keep her happy by keeping himself healthy, Tsukune could function normally. Or, at least normally for a more-or-less human male with a compulsive need to make a succubus happy with him.

The bad news: Tsukune was to stay in the hospital for at least three days of observation and evaluation. "His heart and mind may be yours, for now," said the doctor, "but until I discharge him, his ass belongs to me!" Not only was Tsukune scheduled for various scans and brain activity testing, but a full battery of intelligence and memory testing, spatial awareness evaluation, and any other test Gakuto could think of to evaluate the level of probable brain impairment.

The good news: Just as Kurumu started to form the words insisting she be allowed to stay by Tsukune's side, Doctor Saito fixed her with a stern, no-nonsense gaze, and said, "And you, young lady, are going nowhere. You are to stay by his side at all times. If you feel like you're losing control of him, you use the auto injector. Is that understood?"

Tsukune felt a rush of relief and happiness. Biting back the "Yahoo!" that rang in his mind, he looked questioningly at the doctor.

"When you say, 'By his side…'" Kurumu started.

The doctor cut her question short, saying, "I mean if I see the two of you separated by more than a bathroom door during the next three days, I'll suture the two of you together until he's released. Is that clear enough?"

Over the next three days, Tsukune had to remember that the sense of dread he occasionally felt while waiting for Doctor Saito's diagnosis was not necessarily his own. He found himself repeatedly grasping Kurumu's hand to comfort her, as the testing progressed, and they awaited the results. The sense of immediate comfort he felt from the contact was alien, but not unwelcome.

"Five percent loss of peripheral vision in the left eye," Gakuto pronounced, "noticeable loss of spatial awareness, and minor impairments to fine motor control, and long-term memory."

"What does that mean?" Kurumu asked, pity and sadness rising in her chest.

Tsukune grasped her hand comfortingly, and said, "I won't be playing professional hockey when I graduate, they won't let me fly the space shuttle, and my Kanji is going to be a little messier than before."

Kurumu thought she felt a catch in the lighthearted brush-off of the damages, but Tsukune's own feelings betrayed no deep concern about these handicaps.

When Saito showed a scan of brain activity focused on cognitive function, Kurumu knew right away that the sinking feeling of profound loss was Tsukune's, and not her own. Reflexively, she grasped his hand and arm, squeezing both tightly as he asked, "What's the damage, doc?"

"Actually, I'm not sure I trust this scan," said Gakuto. "It shows a significant loss of cognitive function, but that result is not borne out by the intelligence testing we did. We score you now at about 167 on the standard Intelligence Quotient scale." The doctor's eyes widened as Tsukune hung his head sadly. "Why? Just how high was it before?"

"Let's just say that a 'significant loss' is about right," Tsukune answered morosely.

Kurumu, desperately fighting the wave of sadness she felt from Tsukune, groped for an emotional foothold with which to lift Tsukune's mood, and found none. She could only grip him in a fierce embrace as she whispered, "Oh, Tsukune, I'm so sorry. Please, _please_ don't see this as the end of the world."

Doctor Saito looked disapprovingly at Tsukune. "You obviously don't have any understanding of just how fortunate you are, young man. For a normal human, the damage you sustained would have resulted in a permanent vegetative state. In either of the human or monster worlds, your 'super-human' intelligence is indistinguishable from the 'god-like' reasoning abilities you must have possessed before. You're still smarter than such giants as DaVinci, Tesla, Einstein, or Hawking; so don't for a single instant pity yourself for that! It's insulting to those of us who muddle through with a fraction of your reasoning ability."

Tsukune assumed the look of a boy suitably chastened by Gakuto's brief lecture, mumbling an apology and agreement, while inwardly, he sighed. _Maybe I'll just be 'special needs' instead of simply 'retarded' among my own people._

* * *

Ririko, Moka, and Yukari were waiting in front of the hospital, waiting for Tsukune to be released.

"They found a way to contain his powers without a seal," Ririko explained. "They needed to keep him for a lot of testing afterward, and Kurumu needed to stay with him. He's not going to be quite the same as before."

"Is the brain damage that bad?" Moka asked sadly.

"That's part of it. Also, Kurumu had to help with containing his powers, so..."

Yukari felt a flash of suspicious intuition. "How exactly did she 'help' contain his powers?"

Ririko paused, stalling when she saw Tsukune and Kurumu exit the lobby. "There they are!"

When Tsukune and Kurumu finally emerged from the hospital, hand in hand, Yukari's unpleasant suspicions became suddenly plausible. Moka felt a pang of jealousy and hunger as she watched them approach, but these gave way to delight as she saw Tsukune walking under his own power.

"Tsukune!" she launched herself at the boy, embracing him warmly and inhaling deeply. "Please tell us you're fine!"

Tsukune tentatively placed his free arm around her waist, giving her a brief, polite squeeze.

"I'm as well as can be expected. I have a few permanent handicaps, but nothing earth-shattering," he said in a slightly impassive voice. "There's something else I have to tell you girls."

Yukari was already looking intently into Tsukune's eyes, noting the glassy, thousand-yard stare that had replaced his normally animated gaze. "Kurumu! You've _enslaved_ our Tsukune, you lecherous, oversexed, conniving, she-demon! Tsukune! Snap out of it! Come back to us!" Yukari frantically snapped her fingers in front of Tsukune's unflinching eyes.

"No!" Kurumu snapped. "He mustn't! I'm his control over his powers right now! If he shakes the Charm, his brain goes back into 'self destruct' mode!"

Moka, initially confused by the exchange, finally realized what had happened. Her eyes flashed suspiciously as she glared at the succubus. "How convenient! You couldn't wait to add him to your harem, could you? Is he going to take over for the one who gets your lunch, or the one who rubs your feet?"

"It's not like that…" Kurumu retorted.

Tsukune could feel the helpless indignation rising in the succubus; the desire to lash out at her tormentors. "STOP!" he yelled, silencing all three girls. He looked expectantly at Kurumu.

Kurumu nodded to her Destined One. "Tell them the honest truth, in your own words. Speak as freely as you need to," she commanded.

"I wasn't thrilled with the idea, at first, but it was the only way. I have to help Doctor Saito find a permanent fix for me, and I can't do that from the hospital bed. Kurumu has been nothing but politely affectionate, even though I can feel she wants more. She released all her other 'slaves'; I'm the only one in her harem. She's trying very hard to make this arrangement about my needs, rather than her own desires. I know this because I'm sharing her feelings now. She cannot lie to me about her feelings while we're connected like this; she could command me to accept her lies, or ignore them, but she can't keep me from knowing about them." He paused, alternating his gaze between Yukari and Moka. "This is the way it has to be, for the time being. If you can't trust her, then trust me. You heard her command me to be honest; do you believe _me_?"

Moka's expression softened. "I'll always believe you, Tsukune. As long as I know it's you, I will believe you."

Yukari still glowered angrily at the succubus. "Under these circumstances," she growled, "we have to accept it. Make no mistake, Boob-Monster; I'll be watching you like a hawk."

Moka looked sheepishly at Kurumu, fidgeting her fingers. "Who do I ask if I…ummm…if I want some of his…"

Tsukune felt Kurumu's surge of irritation and jealousy, and fought to suppress the like reaction in his own thoughts. A building pressure in his mind urged him to refuse Moka as brusquely as possible as he now felt the protectiveness and concern for his welfare blended with the possessiveness and annoyance. As he continued to resist, a tingling sensation rose faintly in the back of his skull.

_**Uh, Kurumu**__**…**_, he sent his thought to her.

_**Oh kami-sama!**_ Kurumu's contrite thought rang in his mind, as the pressure relented instantly, taking the tingling with it. _**I'm so sorry, Tsukune! I could've…**_

_**But you didn't, and now we**__** know we**__** have at least **_**some**_** sort of early warning. I never knew how much it irritated you when I let her drink my blood.**_

_**Well, she could still hurt you, you know!**_ Kurumu shot back.

_**Come on, Kurumu**_, he admonished. _**You know as well as I do that concern for my impending anemia came second to jealousy. And, now you know how **_**I**_** feel about being able to help my friends. Moka and I can still be friends, right?**_

Tsukune felt a brief pang of shame, and remorse that he knew wasn't his, as Kurumu answered Moka in a level voice. "It's Tsukune's decision. If he wants to, I won't stop him."

"Thank you!" Moka exclaimed as she rushed in to claim her snack.

As she drank, Tsukune pushed down the helpless feeling of envy, and whispered in her ear, "From now on, when you need a drink, I'll give it to you where Kurumu doesn't have to stand there and watch. She worries about me when you do that, you know."

_

* * *

(Meanwhile: Geosynchronous orbit of Sol-3, 36,000km above Honshu.)_

As the Survey Technicians worked furiously to locate the wayward 'human' boy, Touji and Kasumi continued the orderly shutdown of their life on Earth. Mixed feelings permeated their efforts, as they said goodbye, piece-by-piece, to the small corner of the galaxy that had been their universe for the last ten years. They were certainly happy to be rescued, but living the reality of the off-world rescue protocols was a lot harder than agreeing to them as a condition of operating a private craft. The Aono's would not again set foot on the planet below, except to aid in the retrieval of their son. No personal momentos of their time on planet Earth would be returned to them. Anything of cultural or sociological value would be studied and archived, all else would be destroyed. They were expected to make a complete re-integration into Commonwealth culture and social structure, utterly deleting their time spent among the humans.

It was three days into the process that the Commander summoned them to a dimly lit tactical briefing room for an update on the search for Tsukune. Displayed on one wall was a black expanse, with the main Japanese island of Honshu outlined in green; labelled blue circles identified Tokyo and Kyoto. Unfamiliar to the Aono's was a network of red lines, interconnecting semi-transparent circles at various locations on the map, resembling a map of some hideously inefficient rail or transit system. Some of the lines disappeared off the edge of the map, indicating destinations outside of the Japanese nation-state.

"Do you know what this is?" the Commander asked without preamble, indicating the "railroad map".

"It's not the rail system," replied Touji, shaking his head. "I don't think it overlays the highways or air traffic routes, either. What is it?"

"It's a network of trans-dimensional conduits connecting a series of dome-shaped phase-shifted habitats and regions. Nothing in our data indicated that the humans possessed any such technology. Are you certain you've never heard _anything_ about this type of capability?"

"Nothing at all," replied Kasumi. "Even their best theoretical physical models are far from mature. Is someone breaking quarantine on this planet? Has some other civilization set up a colony here?"

"No. The energy signatures and integration with the geoelectrical patterns suggest strongly that these are Earthly in origin. It is into one of these conduits that Tsukune's transponder signal disappeared, here." The Commander pointed to a terminus in the far south of the island. "If any Earthly entity was to secretly have this capability, who would it be?"

Touji's heart sank as the only plausible answer came out of his mouth. "A government research program of only the most advanced nation-states on the planet. America and Japan, individually or as a team, would be the likeliest candidates. But this is so far beyond them, I can't believe it!"

"In any case, we need to be especially cautious. Only precisely tuned active scans will penetrate the dimensional interface, exposing us to possible detection. If your boy is in one of the domes on this island, it could still take weeks to locate him. If he's been transported to another continental mass, we will call for additional support, but it could be weeks more."

"Commander? What if…" Kasumi's weak voice quavered slightly. "What if he's been taken into custody for research?"

"Ma'am, we are escorted by a Fleet Expeditionary Vessel, with a contingent of Commonwealth Marines trained and equipped for almost any eventuality. He will _not_ be permitted to remain in the custody of the humans, if that's where he is."

* * *

Tsukune's race was not a passionate one, nor was it given to irrational behavior based on some vague concept of spiritual and personal compatibility or predestination. As he had told Kurumu before, his people sought out mates that complemented them on a mental and emotional level. That is not to say they were unemotional, or unfeeling. They just didn't give their feelings the homage that humans seemed to, and typically had subdued emotional responses. Of course, he was the first of his race to be emotionally connected to a teenage succubus, while equipped with an adolescent human male's endocrine system.

Most surprising to Tsukune was the unbridled abandon with which the succubus displayed her feelings. The wild euphoria he felt when Kurumu first saw him in the morning was genuine. On the first morning after a night spent in separate buildings, Tsukune was completely unprepared for the rush of happiness he shared with the succubus, and ill-equipped to apply the appropriate impulse control. The two collided in mid-air as Tsukune's leap mirrored Kurumu's, and the two fell in a heap in front of the male dorms. Rubbing their knotted heads in pain, they agreed that the morning greeting should probably be toned down.

Less welcome, but no less authentic, was the palpable pain she felt when they parted ways for the night. Doctor Saizo insisted that she check on the integrity of her Charm nightly, so the last thing he saw every evening was her gleaming violet eyes. He felt the growing sadness at the thought that he would turn to go his dorm, and simply forget about her until the morning. He felt her desire to stay with him through the night, the longing for just five minutes more of his companionship, and the sadness that followed. He hated them. He had never in his life felt emotions so powerful that they induced physical pain, but the twinge he felt in his chest when he turned from her was real. He realized that her emotional hungers and desires were no less urgent than Moka's need for blood.

On the third night of this routine, Tsukune could no longer stomach his own indifference to her pain, and his impulse control failed him yet again. While he gazed into Kurumu's eyes as she verified and reinforced the Charm, his arms, almost automatically, slid into an embrace around her waist. Her nightly melancholy evaporated, replaced now by surprise, and a glimmer of hope. Kurumu's eyes widened in shock as her own arms found his shoulders of their own accord.

"Tsukune?" she asked, unable to form any more of a question.

"Kurumu…I…" his face moved closer to hers, as he breathed in her scent, his eyes still locked on hers.

"What Tsukune?" Kurumu was terrified, and hopeful, and jubilant. _What is he doing?_

"Kurumu…" he stammered again. A terrible free-for-all was now being waged between his own hormones, his desire to ease her pain, his fear, her desire, her fear, his confusion.

Finally, Kurumu broke the stalemate, and grasped his chin with her thumb and forefinger. Turning his head to the side, and breaking Tsukune's momentary brainlock, she placed a feather-soft kiss on his cheek. Embracing him tightly, she whispered into his ear, "When you're ready to kiss me, you won't need to struggle with it, or debate it. When you're ready, you'll just do it, and I won't say no. Good night, Tsukune."

Tsukune stood staring numbly, as Kurumu turned, took a few steps, and blew him a kiss before carrying on to her own dormitory.

For some reason, the ache he felt in his chest as she left was greatly eased, and he was strangely content.

* * *

It was five days before the Commander summoned the Aono's back to the bridge. As they entered, they noted the main display was dedicated to a tactical overhead display of a small group of buildings, and was showing the locations and movements of various biological signatures.

"Exactly what sort of school did you send your son to?" asked the Commander.

"Why?" replied Touji, "Is there a problem? Did you locate him?"

"Of course, you're looking at him now. Look at the display."

Touji and Kasumi turned their attention to the glowing pips that, according to the legend, displayed color-coded biosigns of life forms. A single green circle was placed in what was presumably, a classroom, with red circles occupying desks in neat rows, and a single red circle moving at the front of the classroom. Elsewhere, other red indicators moved about, or were stationary. The green circle was alone in a swarm of red fireflies.

Kasumi looked at the Commander in puzzlement. "You said your scanning couldn't single him out from the other human biosigns, that he'd look just like the humans around him. It looks like it works just fine."

"Oh yes, it's working just fine; and yes, I did say we couldn't differentiate him from other human signatures. There's just one problem with your interpretation of the display."

"And what is that?" Touji asked impatiently.

"Those are _not_ human biosigns."

The Commander touched his communications panel.

"Major, inform your Marines that we will require their services on the surface…"

Continued


	19. Strange Invasion

Disclaimer: I own nothing, except the desire to entertain myself and others, using other people's characters.

A/N: I know, long update interval. All I can say is, "Sorry".

Stranger In A Strange World  
Strange Invasion

"_The Marines have landed, and the situation is well in hand."  
~ Richard Harding Davis_

xxxXXXxxx

"Moka says my blood isn't as good as before," Tsukune said absently.

"Hmm?" Gakuto blew a plume of smoke through his nostrils, as he looked up from the PET scan in his hand.

"It's still 'delicious', but something is 'off' about it."

The two were sequestered in a small conference room at the hospital that they had converted to a laboratory/office. Stacks of folders and films covered most of the table, and a pair of laptop computers, generously supplied by Saito, had found nests among the chaos of paper and film. The counters that ringed the room held racks of blood samples, microscopes, Petri dishes, and various other medical research paraphernalia. Gakuto crushed out the remains of yet another cigarette into the overflowing ashtray next to his work station.

"You're still a very ill young man despite the success of the Charm on control over your powers. Vampires are naturally very sensitive to the health of their prey."

"'Prey'," Tsukune echoed. "I'm not sure I like the sound of that. In most of the natural world, the prey usually dies to feed the predator."

"What's really on your mind, boy?" asked the doctor. "This isn't about some irrational fear that she'd drink you dry, is it?"

"It's not that. It's just that sometimes she seems more concerned about my blood than about me. I mean, would she still be my friend if my blood wasn't so 'delicious'?"

Gakuto looked curiously at Tsukune for a moment. "You truly don't understand do you?" he asked. "Tell me; have you ever read Moka's thoughts while she drank?"

Tsukune shook his head. "I've avoided it, actually. I've read the minds of predators before, and it isn't pretty. I think if I connected to that kind of…hunger while it was feeding on _me_, I'd lose my nerve and cut her off altogether."

"You have it all wrong. No matter how tasty or satisfying your blood is, she wouldn't be drinking from you if she didn't feel some kind of special connection to you." Gakuto paused, "Or rather, she wouldn't be feeding on you and _leaving you alive_, if you were just 'prey'. The sharing of your blood is a very special and intimate show of friendship for a vampire."

"I had no idea," Tsukune sighed. "I wonder if I know as little about succubae as I do about vampires."

"I imagine you have some research to do on both, don't you? You can study vampire and succubus courtship later," the doctor said with a sly smirk. "Right now, we have a brain to fix. I suggest you pay attention; it _is_ your gray matter we're concerned with."

"What do the models say about my regenerative theory?" asked Tsukune.

"The theory is revolutionary. My colleagues are most astounded. Of course, the synthesized stem cell bio-matter upon which your theory depends is still decades away."

"What about suppressive therapies, like the use of drugs to limit brain activity by limiting blood flow?"

Gakuto frowned and shook his head. "We can't isolate the action of the drug to specific areas of the brain. It would just be another flavor of induced coma. We may have to face the fact that there is no viable medical intervention for your particular problem."

"There's one thing we haven't considered, yet." Tsukune's voice was very quiet.

"Well, what is it? I thought we had covered everything."

"Radio-meningectomy. We identify…"

"Absolutely out of the question!" spat the doctor. "I'm not going to lobotomize you, or worse, just to say I cured you. If you want out from under the Charm so badly, ask me for an overdose of morphine. I'd sooner give you _that_, than finish the work your stroke started."

"We have the PET scans showing the parts of the brain whose activity is suppressed by the Charm! One of those is the seat of my powers! If we use radiation to destroy the center of the powers, it doesn't matter whether or not I can control them! This could work!"

"But which part? How many lobes do I destroy before we find it?" Doctor Saito allowed all semblances of professional decorum to flee. "Zap! Sorry, there goes your free will. Zap! Oh, look, the Charm is permanent! Zap! Well, that was..."

"Okay! I get it! It's risky! It's also still my decision, isn't it? If I demand _treatment_ to suppress these powers permanently, this is _how_ you'd have to do it, isn't it? And you would _have_ to do it, wouldn't you?"

Gakuto looked uncomfortably down at another PET scan. "I'd still recommend the morphine, but yes, you _could_ force my hand. And that same night, I'd shave my head and enter a Shinto monastery, because I could never again call myself a doctor after that."

xxxXXXxxx

"Listen up, Marines!"

The group of ten reptilians in the squad bay immediately stopped their various activities, and stood to attention.

"The salamanders in Search and Rescue got a bug under their scales about a castaway pickup, so we're elected." announced the Warrant Officer, _Iss'sso_.

"What's got them so afraid of the locals? Was it the rocks, or the pointy sticks?" A ripple of hissing laughter filtered around the bay.

_Iss'sso_ hissed a snicker of his own and replied, "I think it has more to do with the fact that our pointy-stick-wielding barbarians on the surface are somehow _also_ maintaining a trans-dimensional transit network." Silence took immediate reign in the room, as he strode over to the tactical table. "Gather around, this is your target area."

He inserted a data peg into the table, and activated it. A translucent green landscape rose out of the surface of the table in three dimensions, stopping at sea level; several nearby population centers flashed into existence as blue areas. Finally, a red hemisphere expanded into existence, obscuring one of the nearby villages, and extending several straight, tubular tendrils out away from its center.

"This dome, and the tunnels in and out of it effectively don't exist," started _Iss'sso_. "They are trans-dimensionally offset from the space-time continuum of the local area. The natives in normal space in this locale can neither see nor interact with the environment within the dome or tunnels. We are assured by our castaways, and every single scrap of electronic intelligence we've gathered that this structure is beyond the capabilities of the native population."

"How can we be certain? Our previous surveys obviously missed this."

"Two things; firstly, power consumption. The inhabitants of Earth," he continued, "are the only known species whose first application of nuclear fission was to produce a weapon." Hisses of disgust and surprise erupted from a few of the troopers. "It was only after they advanced the design of their weapons to harness nuclear fusion, that one of them _finally_ got the bright idea to use fission as a _power source_. This civilization, if you want to call it that, actually has enough nuclear fusion weapons to exterminate themselves, but not one solitary fusion reactor in operation to produce power. Only zero point energy extraction or the mass production of antimatter would yield enough energy to maintain this network. Based upon their prior behavior, we've concluded that if the Humans had either of these technologies, they would surely have annihilated themselves before doing anything useful with it."

"Okay Sir, we get it. The Humans are too hostile and insane to harness a suitable power source without self-destructing. What's the second thing?"

"Secondly, the biological signatures within the habitat are not human. Some are close, some nearly identical, but the population of this dome is almost all non-human. They were not observed by previous survey missions, nor do they appear in any native catalog of indigenous life forms. Whoever, or whatever they are, they have evaded detection by the native human population, and by our own remote surveys; and wield power and technology that should not exist on this planet for at least two more generations.

"Your mission has three objectives: locate and retrieve the castaway currently posing as the human Tsukune Aono; locate and mark the location of the power source maintaining the dimensional interface; and verify that the creatures within the barrier are truly native to this planet.

"Insertion will take place during local dark hours, halfway between the sunset and sunrise transitions. Your cloaked landing craft will descend to the tunnel entry point here." An end of one of the 'tubes' highlighted itself briefly with a flash of light. "Once inside, you will proceed in stealth mode to the wooded area here, behind what appears to be an educational facility campus, and secure a landing area. Your scatter field will remain in operation at all times when on the surface, or during ascent and descent. After your landing area is secured, you will separate into two teams. Team alpha will secure the castaway, and carry on to investigate the nature of these creatures with his assistance. Team beta will seek out and mark the power source with a positron emitter. This will permit detailed scanning and analysis by the SAR techs. Any questions so far?"

Hearing none, he continued. "Communications on the ground will be with your natural talents, backed up by secure point-to-point links, embedded in your headgear. Communications between the drop-ship and this vessel will be via latent comm-link only. No active communications will be permitted without Command Authority while on the ground. Universal translators, updated with the local dialect will be issued, and you will engage your holo-skins while on the surface. Interaction with the inhabitants is not anticipated, however.

"Your squad will be accompanied to the surface by the Executive Officer of this ship. He will exercise Command Authority on the Commander's behalf, should you require immediate authorization to deviate from the mission plan or rules of engagement. You will also be accompanied by an exo-psychologist from the SAR vessel. She will accompany you to contact Aono, and to aid in verification of the nature of the non-humans.

"Finally, you will be issued your complete combat load for this operation." He paused as subdued clicks and hisses of shock rippled around the room. "Our usual rules of engagement for cultural and technological isolation do not apply. It's a technicality, at best, but a valid one, until these other sentient species are cataloged. Only _Human_ culture and ignorance of our operation are specifically protected in regulations for a class two pre-interstellar civilization. As these 'others' were not surveyed at the time this system was set aside for non-interference, they are exempt from the usual precautions. If they turn out to be hostile to either the Human population or to the Commonwealth, they may be removed, with extreme prejudice, if necessary."

xxxXXXxxx

Late that afternoon, Tsukune and Kurumu met in the same isolated basement library where he started in earnest the study of his powers, and monster kind in general. Tsukune was well aware that medical options for his treatment were dwindling quickly, so for tonight, he was determined to find at least a few supernatural alternatives. While Kurumu scanned the books for any mention of "regeneration", Tsukune studied in exquisite detail those she set aside. For nearly an hour, they pored over crackling tomes in awkward silence. Finally, Tsukune broke the tomb-like quiet.

"Kurumu?" he started, somewhat hesitantly. "Could we talk about last night?"

"Sure," she replied. "You mean about how we nearly…"

Tsukune coughed uncomfortably. "Yes. I want to say I'm sorry for..."

"Don't be!" she interrupted. "It's only natural for you to want to try to kiss me. You're under a very potent spell, and sharing my emotions, on top of it. Of course you thought you wanted to kiss me, after all, I certainly want to kiss you. How could you not respond to my feelings, at least a little bit?"

"Umm, that's not what I'm sorry about." He hesitated, unable to look directly into Kurumu's eyes. "I was saying I'm sorry about stopping. I should have just kissed you."

"What are you saying; that you should have just given in to my feelings?"

"No, I'm saying that your feelings aren't the only ones pushing me any more. I'm starting to develop my own feelings about us, and it's scaring me a little."

"Your own feelings? What kind of feelings? Please, Tsukune! Tell me what's going on!" Kurumu's tone was somehow desperate and hopeful at the same time.

Tsukune sighed, briefly closing his eyes. "My people aren't totally emotionless, but our feelings are much more subdued than a human's or a monster's. But what I felt from your emotions… It's like I've been color blind my whole life, and only now can I see the full spectrum of colors. The depth and strength of the feelings you've shown me are overwhelming. The one emotion I was totally unprepared to cope with was the pain; your pain, when we had to be apart. I had to do something…anything to try to make that ache go away. When I nearly kissed you, I wasn't responding to your desires, to do something to please you; I was doing something I hoped would dull the heartache I felt from you."

Kurumu stared in silent wonder with glistening eyes, unable to form words.

Tsukune chuckled wryly. "Isn't this ironic? Ten years living as a human being, and I have to come to a monsters-only private school to learn human feelings from a succubus. Just do me one favor, could you? "

"You should already know by now that anything you want from me is yours for the asking. Name it." Kurumu said.

"Be patient with me; now and after you release your Charm. Let me learn these emotions and what they mean at my own pace. After all, we have all of high school together to figure this out, don't we?"

Tsukune felt a rush of uninhibited hope and anticipation, and was able to brace himself at least partially for the imminent collision as Kurumu launched herself at him. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she glomped him along the full length of his body; knocking him off his chair and scattering a few of the books in the process.

"You wait and see," she said after placing a careless, wet kiss on his cheek. "I, Kurumu Kurono, am going to make you the most deliriously blissful sentient in the known galaxy! When I…" She paused, looking past Tsukune's head to the book it was resting on. "What's this, now?" she asked aloud. Still straddling his legs, she slid the book from under him and straightened to read the open page.

"What is it?" Tsukune asked, puzzled by the sudden change in Kurumu's mood. "What do you see in there?"

Without a word, she turned the book around to face him. Prominent at the top of the page was a section heading that read: _The Regenerative Properties of Vampire's Blood_.

xxxXXXxxx

As soon as it was clear of the launch bay, the ovoid surface landing craft engaged its scatter field, making it effectively invisible to both the naked eye, and to any radar that might happen to sweep across its location. Re-entry was virtually a non-event, as the craft used gravity manipulation to maintain altitude as it braked through sub-orbital velocity to a near standstill, relative to the ionosphere of the blue planet below. Then it simply descended sedately through the atmosphere on an almost vertical trajectory to its destination on the surface. The only tense moment of the journey to the strange otherworld occurred when the craft entered the trans-dimensional tunnel, and the ship was briefly highlighted by a faint green nimbus of energy as the dimensional interface reacted with the cloaking envelope. The tunnel was a tight fit for the landing craft, but the navigation computer maintained all-around clearances to within a millimeter of each other as it made the short trip to the dome, and the habitat within. Only seconds after entering the dome, all sensor interference cleared, and the instruments located the search and rescue transponder worn by the castaway, not two kilometers away. A quick scan of the area behind the main campus building revealed a secluded clearing in the dense trees. Silently, the landing craft settled on the floor of the forest clearing. After sweeping the area and securing the craft from flight operations, the pilot opened aft boarding ramp. Wordlessly, and almost invisibly, due to their photo-disruptive apparel, the reptilian warriors dispersed to carry out their mission.

xxxXXXxxx

Tsukune was in high spirits as he walked back to the male dormitory building. He intended to have a long talk with Moka before being truly hopeful about a cure from vampire blood, but the relatively recent tome (only about a hundred years old) was unequivocal: the blood of a vampire was a regenerative. The book made vague reference to grave risks, but was not specific. Whatever the risks, Tsukune thought they had to be better options than what he faced at the moment. He smirked as he remembered Kurumu's half-joking promise to get him all of Moka's blood that he needed, with or without permission; 'the pink-haired bloodsucker _did_ owe him a pint or two, after all'.

Another part of his exuberance was spillover from Kurumu's shared feelings. One thing that could be said for being Charmed was this: he never had to guess what her feelings were on any given topic. When he said they had 'all of high school to figure this out', he wasn't making any particular commitments, but Kurumu's interpretation of his words was crystal clear; for the remainder of their high school years, Kurumu and Tsukune were a couple, or would try to be. Strangely, his first thought when he realized what she assumed wasn't _Oh crap, I'm screwed_. When he finally grasped that he had effectively promised to pursue a romantic relationship with a succubus, _Would that be so bad?_ were the first words to echo in his mind. However, the prompt and assertive follow-up of, _No it wouldn't_, surprised him a little.

Tsukune paused and stretched, and consulted his wristwatch. _It must be past midnight_, he thought. His watch was a Spartan device, a plain white face, with a single black hand showing the hours, and a tiny blue jewel at the twelve o'clock position on the face. Every civilization, from every star system, eventually got the idea to make an indicator needle rotate at the same rate at the planet they were on, indicating what portion of a day had elapsed. Thus, some sort of rotary chronograph was universally common throughout the galaxy, and a simple chronograph like this could be calibrated for any planetary rotation period. Glancing at his watch, Tsukune did a quick double-take, and stared, stunned, at its face. Forgetting himself, he uttered three hissing syllables in his native language which, back home in Kanagawa, would have earned him a mouthful of hand soap. The tiny blue jewel was not a mere decoration; it served a very specific purpose, and now, it was flashing with a subdued glow about once a second, indicating that the transponder within the watch was being tracked by Commonwealth telemetry. Reflexively, he looked up at the starry night sky, just as something crashed into the back of his head, flinging him violently from the world of the conscious.

xxxXXXxxx

The leader of Alpha Team clenched his jaw in frustration. The tactical display on his visor showed his target's position very clearly, but the castaway simply wouldn't stay isolated long enough for them to approach. The four Marines of team alpha had also opted to take the SAR exo-psychologist with them, slowing them down to a disappointing crawl as they paralleled the path of their target from within the tree line. The Aono blip was alone for a time, and moving, but paused and was joined by five other life signs, none of which were remotely human. As the group moved off again, he thought and signaled for the team to resume shadowing the castaway. After a short distance, the group came to a halt behind a dormitory structure of some kind, and Alpha Leader ordered the team to move in for visual contact.

_Enough screwing around_, he thought, _it's way past __the kid's__ bed-time, anyway._

xxxXXXxxx

Tsukune's throbbing head urged him back to consciousness, just as the black cloth sack was removed from it. He was face down on the ground, and bound at the wrists and ankles by some sort of sticky, elastic fibers, like a spider's web. His heart sank as he opened his eyes, and his limited field of view revealed several pairs of black boots, and hems of black coats. The only black coats he knew of on campus were the long, black Prussian-army style coats that were the signature of Kouyou's Student Police.

"I think the little freak's awake." Saizo's voice drifted into his hears, just as a monstrously powerful kick connected with his stomach. Tsukune was lofted from the ground, and crashed into a masonry wall behind him. Coughing violently, and gagging, he sagged again to the ground.

"Wait!" Kouyou's voice barked. "You orcs have no feel for this sort of thing." Tsukune worked himself to a sitting position to look up at his captors. They were around the back side of the male dormitory, and four members of the Student Police, plus Komiya Saizou glared contemptuously at him.

_Just my luck; I'm going to die not forty meters from my own room, with a search and rescue ship in orbit_, he thought.

"We're not just here to kill him slowly and painfully," Kouyou purred. "If we do this artistically, his exquisite suffering will be felt just as keenly by any who have any sympathy for this defective human."

Kouyou crouched to look into Tsukune's face. "The Chairman will be disappointed, of course, to find his pet freak tortured to death, but he'll get over it. I may receive a reprimand, or not, but this'll blow over, and we'll be well rid of you."

"Why?" Tsukune croaked. "Why am I such a threat to you?"

Kouyou's laugh was devoid of any humor. "You represent the end of monster kind, of course. 'Co-existing' is just a pretty euphemism for 'assimilation'. As we monsters mingle and mix with you puny humans, we will cease to be. Pure blood monsters are rare enough as it is, and the last thing we need is for some filthy sub-species polluting our gene pool. You, or any other human tolerant enough to befriend monsters, are the door through which this end will come. Or rather, _were_ the door. By the end of the night, _your_ only value will be your protein content, and the warning you serve to others."

Kouyou stood, regarding Tsukune disdainfully. "I'd like to say that this is nothing personal worm, but that would be a lie. I am going to _personally_ relish your agony." A flaming aura burst into life around the King of the Student Police. As he spoke, Kouyou called a tongue of flame to his hand. "First, you have no right to wear that jacket. This is _Youkai_ Academy, not a dumping ground for malformed human offal." Almost negligently, he flicked the small ball of flame onto Tsukune, immediately engulfing his school uniform jacket in flames.

xxxXXXxxx

"TSUKUNE!" Kurumu gasped as she snapped to an upright position in her bed. She had just retired, but was still awake when a ball of black ice formed in her stomach. Whatever was happening, it had Tsukune terrified and in pain. His feelings, though faint, carried a resigned expectation of death this very night. Heedless of her state of dress (a frilly blue camisole, plain white panties, and naught else), she jumped out of bed, already running when her feet hit the carpet. Kurumu wrenched her door open, leaving it hanging by one hinge, and bounded recklessly down the hallway. Several students poked their heads out to see the source of the commotion, but Kurumu ignored all but one. As soon as she saw the pink of Moka's hair, she simply shouted "Tsukune!" again as she barreled past the vampire. The instant Kurumu was clear of the dormitory building; she took flight, with desperation fuelling each beat of her bat-like wings.

xxxXXXxxx

_**Visual contact. Identify our target**_. Alpha leader's thought went out to the team as he observed the scene. Their castaway was being assaulted by the five other beings surrounding him.

_**Confirmed; castaway is the victim of the assault. Orders?**_

The apparent leader had just finished burning away an outer garment by some kind of pyro-kinesis. Alpha leader made his decision at the speed of light.

_**Weapons to non-lethal settings, I say again, weapons free, non-lethal. Take them all out on my mark …three, two, one…MARK!**_

The tree line exploded in light and noise as the Commonwealth Marines opened fire. The subdued green glow of reduced-energy plasma leapt out of the trees like dozens of fireflies to strike the standing monsters, making sharp popping noises as they did. Three of the black-garbed monsters dropped immediately on the first shot, as if pole axed. When the salvo abated, Saizou, still conscious, had at least felt the effects, and wobbled unsteadily as he tried to focus his eyes on the hidden assailants. Kouyou, unfazed, simply looked to the tree line in amusement as the bursts simply dissipated against his body. Saizou bellowed in rage, and transformed to his fully monster form.

_**What the…**_ Alpha leader thought. _**Confirm! Human or not?**_

It was the SAR specialist's thought that answered his. _**Not human.**_

He thumbed the power control on his carbine, as his grim thought echoed to the rest of the squad. _**Not human; not protected.**_ Taking aim at the enraged barbarian, he triggered his weapon. This time, inside the reaction chamber of the weapon, a dense slug of high-energy plasma was coalesced into existence, and impinged with highly-ionized heavy metal vapor. Just as the process was completed, the linear magnetic array that formed the barrel of the weapon sent its two-gram package of destruction to its target at a significant fraction of the speed of light.

The densely compressed burst of plasma and heavy metals smashed through the orc's sternum, converting a significant amount of its kinetic energy into heat. As Saizou's body reacted to the impact and just started its rearward motion, the high energy plasma started to disperse into the interior of his chest cavity, releasing even more thermal energy. Vaporizing organs, tissues, and bones with equal ease in an expanding sphere, the energies simply consumed the orc, until only a few stray wisps of gray mist, drifting back under residual kinetic energy remained.

Kouyou's eyes widened in amazement as he watched Saizou's body vaporized, and he immediately called a massive ball of magical fire to his hand. Scanning the tree line, he registered a slight movement that could just as easily have been an optical illusion. He drew his arm back to release his fire just as a second burst of high-energy plasma shot from the trees.

Kouyou was an almost-mature _kitsune_-daemon, a legendary fox-spirit of formidable power and resilience. Even vampires hesitated to engage his kind one-on-one. He had never known fear, or pain, or serious injury; at least, not until tonight. There was no evading the plasma burst; he took the full brunt of it square in the center of mass of his torso. As a being possessed of elemental fire, he was able to absorb or disperse most of the thermal energy, but kinetic energy was a different matter. He could absorb the worst a vampire or orc could dish out, but even he knew better than to stand boldly in front of a bullet train at full speed. What slammed into his chest was equivalent to two such locomotives. Kouyou, for the first time in his life, felt pain as his ribs broke; he knew fear as the impact lifted him off his feet, and he felt his body moving at the behest of the laws of physics, rather than his own indomitable will. Kouyou, for the first time in his life, felt fear rise within him, as he realized that this was but one discharge from a source that had, moments ago, released dozens of shots. The brute force of energy that he couldn't absorb slammed him into and through the brick wall of dorm behind him, smashing a Kouyou-sized opening in the masonry, and rendering him unconscious.

Alpha team leader was astounded. The whatever-it-was appeared to survive the plasma burst intact; a supposed impossibility for any known organic life form. Only a quick thought from the SAR specialist stopped him from following up with a few more shots. Whatever it was, it was down for the duration, and required none of his further attention. _**Number four**__**!**__**O**__**n me**_, he sent as he broke the cover of the trees to approach the castaway.

xxxXXXxxx

Kurumu cleared the roof of the boys' dorm just in time to see a pair of short human shapes approach Tsukune from the tree line. Her Destined One was on the ground, in the middle of a small scorched area, helpless and burned. Gritting her teeth, she folded her wings into a maximum velocity configuration, and dove. As she approached, she got a closer look at the things that must have been attacking him. They reminded her vaguely of soldiers, but the body armor and weapons were certainly not JSDF-issue. _Hang on Tsukune! I'm coming!_

xxxXXXxxx

The team leader was not two meters form the castaway when a blur of blue, pink, and black shot across the castaway's position, scooping him up, and attempting to regain lift. The creature must have miscalculated, as its wings tripped up on the ground, and it rolled/skidded to an unceremonious stop on the ground, with arms and wings wrapped around the boy. The instant they came to a stop, the blue-haired creature interposed itself between he and the boy, flaring leathery black wings and talons that had no business on such short fingers. Sighing in resignation he raised his carbine one more time...

_**Stop!**_ The voice of the SAR specialist echoed in his awareness. _**Look at her! That's a protective posture! She's defending him!**_

_**Well, what do you suggest?**_ he thought back in irritation.

The exo-psychologist stepped tentatively forward with her hands raised in a non-threatening manner. The odd creature regarded her suspiciously as she activated her translator, and said, "Please! We mean the boy no harm. The others were assaulting him when we intervened."

The Japanese was roughly pronounced, and slightly off a normal rhythm, but understandable. Kurumu glanced around at the unconscious Student Police, and then down at Tsukune, who was still coughing and trying to get up as he nodded. She retracted her wings and claws, and knelt beside Tsukune to help him to a sitting position. As she did so, two more of the strangely-equipped soldiers (she was sure of that part, now) emerged from the trees, their outlines indistinct and shimmering from some kind of visual distortion. Glaring petulantly at the strangers, Kurumu finally spoke. "Well, are you going to help him, or not?"

As the marines took up defensive positions, the search and rescue specialist, with the most medical training, knelt beside the 'human' boy, and started to scan his injuries with a small device resembling an iPhone. The burns were nowhere near as serious as they looked; the worst of it appeared to be a cracked rib. Kurumu watched intently, at last assembling the realization of who these people were, and why they were here. "I know who you are. You're here to take him home, aren't you?" she asked in a quiet, unsteady voice.

The reptilian female regarded the odd creature sharply for a moment. "You know who and what he is?" she asked suspiciously. "He was not supposed to reveal his nature to anyone, under any circumstances."

"It's a long story. The short version is…" Kurumu paused as the woman's eyes went from the diagnostic display to Kurumu's, and narrowed accusingly.

_**You have him under your mental **__**control**__**, don't you?**_ Her thought was reproachful and tinged with disgust. _**What right do you have to do that?**_

_**Like I said**_, Kurumu sent back levelly, _**it's a long story**__**; and it was for his own well-being**__**.**_

"Excuse me, ladies, and…whatever you are," the squad leader interjected, looking at Kurumu at the last part. "We might have a small problem."

Awakened by the cataclysmic incapacitation of Kouyou, a mob of students had gathered rather abruptly around the squad. Whispered rumors and assumptions traversed the crowd of human and monster forms like ripples on a pond.

_A rival faction of monsters has sent a hit squad after the Student Police._

_These are the new Student Police, we're screwed!_

_The human military is attacking Youkai!_

The hostility of the mob was growing by the second, as the most junior member of the team delivered more fine news. "We no longer have contact with the ship. Latent comm-link has been severed."

Second in command looked around at the semicircle of angry creatures. "Looks like we're surrounded," she said, "What now?"

"Yes, we're surrounded." The team leader hefted his carbine, sliding the charging control forward. "That simplifies our problem," he deadpanned as the whine of charging superconductor coils and the angry muttering of dozens of monsters mixed with the smell of ozone in the night air.

xxxXXXxxx

Continued


	20. Strange Parley

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author of this story. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any previously copyrighted material. No copyright infringement is intended.

A/N: ORV – Objective rendezvous point: a predetermined site at which separated elements of a reconnaissance patrol will regroup in the event of deviation from the mission plan; usually sited relatively close to the patrol objective.

Stranger In A Strange World  
Strange Parley

"_Ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation__." __  
__~ Kahlil Gibran_

xxxXXXxxx

"_Yes, we're surrounded." The team leader hefted his carbine, sliding the charging control forward. "That simplifies our problem," he deadpanned as the whine of charging superconductor coils and the angry muttering of dozens of monsters mixed with the smell of ozone in the night air._

"**STOP!**" The deep, multi-tonal voice of the Chairman echoed from within the dormitory building, and the angry murmuring of the mob lulled instantly. The white-robed Hades Lord and administrator stepped through the new doorway provided by Kouyou's impact with the brickwork, and took up a position between the agitated Marines and his students. Facing the irate mob of adolescent monsters, he commanded, "**All of you disperse and return to your rooms a****t once. Only death awaits those who delay, or choose to fight with the outsiders."** He paused, panning his dread gaze across the crowd of students. "**I believe I said **_**at once**_**!**" A rumble of thunder punctuated his statement, and within seconds, the entire crowd was in motion to comply. As the mob departed, he turned his attention to the Marines. "**You can put up your weapons, now. They will serve you no further purpose here.**"

Alpha team leader considered for a moment, then nodded, slinging his plasma carbine over his shoulder as the team followed suit.

"Tsukune!" Moka's shrill voice cried out as she rounded the corner, and skidded to a stop at the sight of armed soldiers surrounding Tsukune, Kurumu, and an unfamiliar female clad in an odd uniform. She was just in time to hear the squad leader's voice though his translator.

"We're only here for the Aono boy. Turn him over to our custody, and we'll take him home."

"Home, you mean Beta Pictoris?" Moka blurted in shock.

The Chairman quirked an amused eyebrow at this, while the Search and Rescue psychologist, _'Ssu_, glared at Tsukune and said, "Another one? What have you been doing, boy, publishing a newsletter?"

"**Ahem**," the Chairman cleared his throat for attention, and addressed the team leader. **"If you're ****only here for the boy, why is there a second group of your soldiers making for our gymnasium at this very moment? Am I to turn one of my students over to a person whose first words to me were a lie?"**

"We can simply take him by force, if necessary," replied the leader. "It's not as if you can stop us."

"**You are correct. You can take the boy, and even get him to whatever conveyance is waiting to take you from this place, but you will find yourselves unable to breach the barrier a second time. Any attempt ****to do so without my leave would be…****ill advised****."** The Chairman noted with satisfaction the brief look of surprise on the leader's features. **"Yes, I was the one who reinforced the barrier and cut your communications. Now, the other team; they seek the power**** source for the barrier, yes?"**

The Chairman smiled enigmatically as the soldier spat a hissing oath. "**Recall them, and I will brief you fully on the nature and purpose of this habitat, including the barrier. As for the boy, if he does not wish to go with**** you, you will need to convince me of your legitimate claim on him. Regardless of his immediate disposition, you will need to be apprised of his medical status; it may impact how immediately you will be able to depart with him. Shall we retire to my offi****ce to discuss the matter like civilized creatures?**"

Alpha team leader looked quizzically at the mysterious robed figure, weighing his options. Finally, he spoke into his surface link, "Beta Actual; abort your mission and return to ORV. Escort XO to join us in a meeting with the administrator of this facility. Acknowledge." After a pause while listening to the reply, he continued, "Affirmative; a meeting with the locals. Alpha Actual, out."

Returning his gaze to the Chairman, he said, "Lead the way."

Turning toward the main school building, the Chairman said over his shoulder, **"You do not need your ****disguises; y****our natural forms will be less alarming to my students than your human facade."**

xxxXXXxxx

While Kurumu, Moka, _'Ssu_, and the Alpha Team second-in-command, the only female Marine of Alpha Team, accompanied Tsukune to the infirmary, the rest carried on to the Chairman's office. The aliens had shed their holographic disguises, but the night nurse seemed not to notice as she checked Tsukune into an exam room. _'Ssu_ was a trifle perplexed by the blasé manner in which the natives were taking first contact with an alien race. Putting her confusion aside, she concentrated on a thorough med-scan of the castaway teen's brain.

"So what caused all this damage?" she finally asked.

"It's my fault," Moka replied quietly, studying her feet as she fidgeted her fingers. "My real form is psychically very energetic, and immensely powerful. When he unsealed me, the energy forced parts of his brain to become active before he was ready. He became very powerful telepathically, but was burning himself up. We tried to stop him, but…"

"But he's an adolescent male, and wouldn't stop. Am I right?" Moka nodded.

"So the mental control was the only way to suppress his out-of-control powers?"

Kurumu nodded. "My Charm slows or impairs brain activity in areas associated with free will, self-determination, and emotional inhibitions. Those areas overlapped the parts that generated his more aggressive telepathic powers, so my control extended over those areas, as well."

'_Ssu_ frowned. "That's not all, though. I can detect with my own awareness a continuing connection between the two of you. What's that?"

"It's a bonding at a deep emotional level," Tsukune supplied. "We share feelings in real-time as a result of the connection. It encourages behavior that is pleasing to the dominant partner."

"Is that how you see this, a partnership?" '_Ssu_ asked.

"I hope so," Kurumu said. "I've tried very hard not to assert myself over him." She looked at Tsukune with open longing. "Sometimes it's very difficult to do that."

'_Ssu_ smirked as much as her scaly physiology allowed, and turned to Moka. "So what exactly is your real form? What species are you?"

"I'm a vampire," replied Moka.

Sheentered the query in her hand-held library computer, receiving a trilling error tone. "You're not among this planet's surveyed life forms. Can you explain?"

"You have access to this planet's folklore and mythology?" asked Moka. Receiving a nod from _'Ssu_, she offered, "Try changing your search criteria."

A second search yielded thousands of references. _'Ssu_'s large, amber eyes widened in surprise as she scanned the summary of results, and while she absorbed the data, she involuntarily retreated a few steps from the previously harmless-seeming squishy, pink female. _They've remained concealed for hundreds of years, despite the seemingly endless output of fictional lore about them_, she thought. _This will be a fascinating case study_. Aloud, she asked, "Can I see your actual form? Please?"

"Can it hurt Tsukune? I don't want to make things worse than they already are."

'_Ssu_ cast a glance at Kurumu, who hadn't left Tsukune's side, nor released his hand from hers since they arrived. "No, her mental control of him is quite effective in suppressing any harmful brain activity. He's in no danger."

"Are you?" asked Kurumu pointedly. "If your brain is the same as his, couldn't yours get damaged, as well?"

'_Ssu_ shook her head, "I'm an adult at full physical maturity. My brain won't be susceptible to the same kind of damage, but your point is taken; I'll need to establish some mental defenses."

"All right then," said Moka, as she approached Tsukune's hospital bed. "Would you do the honors?"

Tsukune glanced at the two females in turn. "You're sure about this?"

When both nodded, he grasped the rosary, and with a sharp tug, separated it from the choker around her neck. He could feel Kurumu's firm, possessive pressure on his mind, suppressing any stimulation or hyperactivity, and thankfully, averting any pain or exertion he may have experienced. As Moka's monstrous aura flared into life, _'Ssu_ gasped in shock as the energy washed over her, pushing oppressively on her mental defenses. She was trembling from an instinctive sense of anxiety and dread as the transformation completed, and she beheld the malevolent form of Inner Moka. In a blur of motion, the vampire closed on _'Ssu_, leaning in close and inhaling deeply.

"Not as appetizing as Tsukune; not at all," Moka wrinkled her nose as she whispered to the mesmerized reptilian. Stepping back, she turned a slow pirouette. "You have the distinct honor to be in the presence of the pinnacle of Earthly evolution. Is it everything you hoped it would be?" she asked mischievously.

The psychologist finally remembered to start scanning the never-before recorded life form before her. As she adjusted her scanner, and recorded the readings, Moka strode over to Tsukune's bed, and leaned over him, breathing his scent in deeply. "It's been far too long since I've had my Tsukune-snack, you don't mind do you?" It was more a command than a question.

"Of course not, Moka," Tsukune said as he braced himself, and squeezed Kurumu's hand reassuringly.

'_Ssu_ could only watch in horrified fascination as she took the Galactic Commonwealth's (and Earth's) first recorded footage of _Terra Exsanguinus Sapiens_ feeding on its prey.

xxxXXXxxx

Doctor Saito sat in the waiting area of the Chairman's office, smoking his third cigarette since arriving. The blame for his resumption of the filthy habit, he believed, rested firmly upon the boy and his medical condition. As if the stress of attempting to treat the untreatable wasn't enough, he was now waiting here at the instruction of the Chairman's secretary, courtesy of a three-in-the-morning telephone call. An unexpected summons from a Hades Lord was _never_ cause for relaxation.

He stood as the door opened, and the Chairman strode in. Following the Chairman were four lizard men, he thought, wearing some kind of military-style body armor and weapons slung at their shoulders. As he looked closer, his eyes widened, and the cigarette fell, unheeded, from his slack mouth. These were not lizard men. The snouts were far too short, and foreheads too high to be the common variety of humanoid reptile. The eyes, large, forward-facing, and amber were characteristic of no reptilian monster found on this planet. That, and the obvious technical refinement and unfamiliarity of their equipment led to one, and only one conclusion. They weren't _from_ this planet. Suddenly, being summoned by the Chairman to a meeting in the dead of night seemed like a small thing.

"**Doctor**," the Chairman greeted. "**Would you join us in my office?**"

Gakuto, still in a state of intellectual shock, nodded dumbly, and shambled into the office behind the group.

The Chairman indicated two plush chairs, as he circled behind his desk. Three of the alien soldiers stood at ease by the door, while the apparently ranking member of the group took one of the chairs. As he did so, he touched a device at his throat and spoke in obviously synthesized Japanese. "We reiterate our demand for the castaway posing as the human, Tsukune Aono. He belongs with his own people."

Doctor Saito gaped at the reptile for a moment, and burst out laughing.

"What about my demand do you find humorous?" the reptile asked.

Gakuto breathed deeply, forcing his diaphragm to stop convulsing. Finally he choked out, "It's not your demand. I've known the boy for several days, now, and this is the first instant that everything about him makes any kind of sense. It is to ridicule my own close-mindedness that I'm laughing now. His true nature should have been obvious to me from my first PET scan of his brain." He finally regained his composure and straightened in his chair. "My name is Gakuto Saito. I have been treating Tsukune since he suffered a massive stroke, and was placed under my care." He bowed to the alien, adding, "The gesture of inclining one's head is to indicate respect, and the absence of hostility or ill will."

The reptile gazed at the doctor for a moment, his expression steadfastly neutral, and finally, inclined his head in a perfect mimic of Gakuto's bow.

"My name is _'Issoss_, I am the Executive Officer of the military vessel that escorts our search and rescue craft." The first sound of the alien name was a clicking noise, making the phonetics effectively unreproducible by the human mouth. "You may render my name as _Soss_."

"**And I can be called simpl****y, 'Chairman'**" the Hades Lord interjected, "**Your medic is currently examining Aono in our infirmary, but perhaps the Doctor can apprise you of the incident his current medical ****status.**"

"There is no need," _'Issoss_ replied, as he closed his eyes and concentrated. A moment later, he opened his eyes and said, "I have been briefed by our 'medic', as you call her. She's actually a psychologist by profession, but possesses the most advanced medical expertise on our team."

"I must say," he continued, "that we find the very idea of mental control between sentients to be reprehensible. We would like to dispatch a medical team as soon as is practical to complete his treatment here on the surface."

"You can repair the damage?" asked Gakuto.

"We can. For now, we will implant neural clamps to suppress any harmful activity, and get him released from the power of that creature. When he is regenerated to his natural form, the damage will be repaired once and for all." Slitted amber eyes fixed on the doctor intently. "I have been informed of the pains you, yourself, took to ensure his health and well-being. Thank you, Doctor."

"As different as we are," replied Gakuto, "I can't imagine that your medical practitioners would behave any differently toward a patient."

"Agreed." _'Issoss _turned his gaze to the Chairman. "At last light this day, we intend to dispatch a second lander with the medical team aboard, along with the boy's parents. They will come to you personally to take custody of him. I trust you have no objection to this, and will permit communications and transit through your barrier to facilitate it."

"**Of course,**" replied the administrator. "**The adjustment has already been made to the barrier. If your craft will make entry at the apex of this habitat dome, t****he pilot can forgo navigation of the tunnels. An interface has been configured there for the time being.**" He turned to the doctor, "**Saito, why don't you go down to the infirmary and tell Aono the good news?**"

Gakuto nodded, and exited the office with a bow. "**In the meantime, **_**'Issoss**_**,**" the Chairman pronounced the name precisely and correctly, "**I can billet you and your soldiers for the night in our facility. My assistant will assign you quarters.**"

The Executive Officer inclined his head as he had seen the physician do, and started to rise. "Very well; it is protocol not to leave our castaway unattended once contacted. This is acceptable."

"**Actually, if your subordinate could see to your quarters, there is one further subject I would like to discuss with ****you,**" the Chairman's said earnestly. "**Something I believe we have in common with each other.**"

xxxXXXxxx

Kurumu had been studiously ignoring the obvious, brutally repressing her conscious realization of what recent events implied. Her Destined One was not going home to his planet sixty-five light-years away. No one had yet said so, so it wasn't really happening. The strangers would go away, and she and Tsukune would carry on towards the idyllic future that awaited a succubus and her Mate of Fate. This was a bad dream, from which she and Tsukune would wake up, and comfort each other before returning to sleep. Down the other path; the path of stark truths and harsh reality was only pain; the heart-rending, soul-crushing agony of loss and loneliness.

Thus far, she had distracted herself by watching _'Ssu_ heal Tsukune's minor injuries with a miraculous little device called a 'cellular regenerator'. Barely larger than an 'AA' flashlight, the device hummed steadily as his scrapes, burns, and minor cuts faded to unblemished skin under its soft, blue glow. As the last of his injuries was disappearing, there was a knock on the door, and Doctor Saito entered.

"How's the patient?" he asked, glancing with undisguised envy at the open med kit and the instruments within.

"His skin has been repaired," replied the alien psychologist. "How you creatures don't accumulate a lifetime of damage with such soft covering is beyond my comprehension. My name is 'Ssu." Again, the clicked prefix rendered the name a difficulty.

"Gakuto Saito," said the doctor, bowing politely. "And we _do_, in fact, accumulate a lifetime of damage. Almost every human body will have its own collection of scars, and tales to tell about them by mid-life." He looked at Tsukune with amusement. "I should have known about you. The theories and proposals you advanced for your own treatment were far too advanced to be Earthly. So what do I call you?"

Tsukune smiled. "Just 'Tsukune', doc; I'm not really looking forward to hearing what a human mouth would do to my given name. So I guess my secret's out?"

"In a limited fashion," Gakuto allowed. "Your secret's safer here, than anywhere it would have been in the human world. And on the subject, I have good news!"

"Oh?" Tsukune felt a dropping feeling in his stomach as a growing sense of dread clamped over his heart.

"Your parents are coming down shortly after sunset this evening. The vessel in orbit is sending them down along with a medical team to treat your brain injuries."

Kurumu's grip tightened on Tsukune's hand, as her heart started hammering in her chest. _This was real._

The doctor continued. "They expect to have some sort of neural clamps implanted, and by the morning, Kurumu can release you from her Charm."

The rushing of blood roared in her ears, and her eyes started to mist over. _Here it comes._

"By tomorrow afternoon, young man, you'll be..."

_Thud._ Kurumu's heartbeat punctuated the doctor's words as he spoke them.

"Going..."

_Thud._

"Home."

It was as if an invisible fist slammed in Kurumu's chest. She clenched her fists and closed her eyes, squeezing a single tear out of each one. It took every fiber of her self-control not to scream in despair and sorrow. Tsukune, feeling her emotions, failed to control his own reaction.

"NOOO!" he screamed, and he clutched Kurumu's arm hard enough to make her yelp in surprise and pain. "I'm not going! I can't leave! I'm not ready!" He buried his face in her shoulder, sobbing it out like a mantra while still painfully squeezing her arm. "I'm not going. I'm not going."

'_Ssu_ gave Kurumu a flat look. "It will gain neither of you anything to continue this unseemly display. We can no more leave him here as he is than we could carelessly discard one of our weapons for you barbarians to find."

Kurumu opened her eyes and looked helplessly at the reptilian psychologist. "What do you mean by 'as he is'? What if he decided to stay?"

"All memory of his original heritage and subsequent time here would be wiped from his mind. We will be assessing his impact on the cultural norms of this planet. If he's found to have violated this planet's quarantine, he will be mem-wiped and marooned here. The same outcome would follow his decision to remain. Our laws on the matter are uncompromising."

Kurumu gasped in horror. Was it worth it to have a Destined One by her side that had no idea who she was? No idea who _he_ was? The Chairman's earlier words came to her memory unbidden. _Could you give up, perhaps forever, what you wish for yourself, in order to keep him safe?_ Tsukune fell silent as Kurumu's innate drive to keep her Destined One by her side contended savagely with her feelings for Tsukune and his so-called best interests. Her eyes clenched shut, as did her fists, piercing her skin with her own fingernails. Kurumu's entire body shook with the tremors of her internal battle.

_He's mine, and he always will be! I can't give up my Destined One!_

_Even if he doesn't even recognize you? What about him? Can he truly be happy here?_

_He can! Even with his memory gone, I can..._

_What? Raise your own Destined One like a child? Would he even _be_ Tsukune anymore?_

Kurumu was surprised at how easy it was once she'd made her decision. She had expected a wrenching pain of the heart, or soul-tearing agony; but all she felt was numbness. Acceptance. Extricating herself from Tsukune's grasp, she climbed on the bed, straddling Tsukune's legs as she took his face in her hands. Tsukune made no moves to resist her, as if he was physically paralyzed by the numbness she felt. She had done this before and it struck her as somehow appropriate that this time, like the last, it was for his own good that she would exert her powers. Gazing intensely into his eyes, she brought her control over him to bear.

"Tsukune, this is the last command I'm going to give you," she said in a trembling voice as her tears started flowing freely down her cheeks. "You are to go home with..."

"No!" Tsukune cried out. He felt the building pressure of Kurumu's command on his mind, and feeling a familiar sickly tingling at the base of his skull, he snatched her into a fierce embrace, breaking her eye contact.

"Whatever you do, don't give me that Command! If you try to force me to leave, I'll fight you with every brain cell I have left!" he whispered hoarsely into her ear.

"I can't try to keep you here! The cost is too high! I have no right to try to hold on to you if..."

"And," Tsukune interrupted, "you have no right to send me away, either; not like that!"

"They'll erase your memories! You won't..."

"Then we'll make new ones! Kurumu, you taught me once already what love feels like; you can teach me again!" Tsukune turned to '_Ssu_, fixing her with a determined glare. "Tomorrow morning, after I'm no longer under control, _I_ will tell you _my_ decision as to whether or not I will leave this planet with you. When you've satisfied yourself that I'm my own sentient, you can explain the consequences and procedures to me. Agreed?"

'_Ssu_, shocked beyond comprehension by sudden turn of events, and Tsukune's vehemence, simply nodded. "Tomorrow," she hissed, with a tone that one would use to pronounce a sentence on a criminal.

xxxXXXxxx

'_Issoss_ was a pragmatic and cautious reptile, and despite his natural wariness about a prolonged exchange with the locals; he was intrigued by how easily they seemed to dismiss the presence of first, the castaway among them; and second, an apparent invasion from off-world. Besides, he still had two of three mission objectives to fulfill. Any discussion, he reasoned, could and should be guided so that information flowed predominantly in one direction: his.

"Of course," he replied, dismissing his marines with a wave and a thought. "I am most curious as to what you believe you may have in common with us."

"**Simply put**," said the Chairman, "**we both have reason to want to monitor the human world, while remaining hidden from it. Is this not correct?**"

The reptilian officer regarded the strange native carefully. "You speak as if you are from a completely planet from the humans. The inhabitants of this dimensional dome, these so-called 'monsters'; are you or are you not native to this planet?"

"**We are. Our previous interactions with the human race have given rise to a large body of folklore and mythology, much of it antagonistic. We mo****nsters have, in the past, enslaved, tormented, and fed upon the human population of this world. As the humans grew in numbers, organization, and technological prowess, we have been forced deeper and deeper into seclusion from their society and view. In d****oing so, we have sacrificed much. Our social evolution, as a whole, has stagnated. Many of our member species still live within antiquated frameworks of tribal hierarchy, or strict caste systems**.

"**That is the purpose of this educational facility; to te****ach our young monsters how to interact with and assimilate into human society. In doing so, we immerse our adolescents in human culture, hoping they will learn to do more than just hide within it. Without an outside influence on our society, we will, in ****time, self-destruct; or engage in a suicidal war against the humans in a vain attempt to resurrect long-dead prestige and dominance.**"

"Very well, we have wildly differing reasons, but you are correct. We both watch the humans and wait. What is it you want from us? Due to our cultural non-interference laws, we cannot aid you technologically; nor can we contaminate human culture or perceptions, even to foster peace between your species. And what could you offer us that we cannot gain for ourselves?"

"**Deal**** openly with the monster world. Allow the very knowledge of your existence to be yet another civilizing influence on our kind****;**** a sharp reminder that we share this world with humanity and continue to do so under the watchful eyes of beings that don't see h****uman or monster, but Terran. That alone, I believe, would be enough of a catalyst to start us on the path to true co-existence with humanity. We have kept the secret of our own existence from the humans for generations; we can keep yours, too.**

"**As for what we can do for you. We can endeavor to supplement your knowledge of this planet and its inhabitants. Obviously, whatever methods you used to study this world initially failed you, as you had no idea we were here, or that we had power the humans did not. Allow us to help you by being your eyes and ears on humanity, while we teach you about monster kind, and who we really are. After all, you've already revealed yourselves to some few of us; wouldn't it be easier to deal with us than seek authorization to destroy us?"**

'_Issoss_ pondered the unique situation for just a few seconds. _This is far over your pay grade, soldier_, he thought to himself, as he came to a tentative conclusion.

"In truth, I already have authorization. But you are correct; negotiation is always preferable to a pointless massacre. I will request that a Contact Specialist accompany this evening's landing party."

xxxXXXxxx

Continued

5


	21. Strange Reunion

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author of this story. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any previously copyrighted material. No copyright infringement is intended.

A/N: Yup. Still alive. I have not perished in a tragic/awesome skydiving/mile-high-club freak incident (:p), nor frozen to death in the wastes of the American Midwest. Just realized that as long as the robots pay the bills, the robots run the show. The robots don't care about my writing. This is the SECOND to last chapter, contrary to my previously optimistic estimates. Enjoy.

Stranger In A Strange World  
Strange Reunion

"_Reunion after long separation is even better than one's wedding night."_

_~ Chinese Proverb_

xxxXXXxxx

Kasumi and Kouji stepped tentatively off the boarding ramp of the surface shuttle, glancing nervously at the half dozen or so curious students that had gathered. Hours before, they had been ushered unceremoniously from the bridge of the _Sso'kiss_, and sequestered in their quarters. Their only clues as to the status of their child were hushed whispers they heard as they left the bridge.

…_subject being assaulted._

…_an altercation with the natives._

…_weapons discharge._

_...report of a fatality._

Kouji's repeated demands to speak with the captain or for information were dismissed by the security detail without explanation, other than, "The Marines are handling it." It was only aboard the surface shuttle that the Aono's were finally briefed on the recent events. Tsukune was fine. One of the non-human creatures attacked a fully armed Commonwealth Fleet Marines fire team; so of course there was a fatality. Tsukune was under a doctor's care for a massive brain hemorrhage. He's stable, and out of immediate danger, but under the mental control of one of the non-human creatures. Tsukune insisted that he be given the option of _remaining on Earth?_ The non-humans want to negotiate relations with the Commonwealth. As the Contact Specialist bullet pointed the situation on the ground, Kouji and Kasumi grew increasingly uncomfortable. _Where the _hell_ have we sent our son?_ The unasked question echoed in both their minds.

As they walked toward the main building of Youkai Academy, they drew growing comfort from the presence of the marine fire team escorting them. The auras they detected were powerful, erratic, and in some few cases, openly hostile. Commonwealth Marines under arms became increasingly visible as they were escorted through the corridors to the infirmary, and finally, into Tsukune's room.

Kouji and Kasumi walked into the room expecting the worst, and were simultaneously jarred and amused by the scene before them. Their stupendously average and somewhat awkward adolescent hatch-ling was relaxing in a large hospital bed with four decidedly attractive (by human standards) females fawning over him, apparently enraptured by his every word, and subtly jostling for the position in closest proximity to him. Three of the females had powerful non-human auras, and the fourth and youngest was essentially human, but exuded an aura of great potency and intelligence. In an obvious position of advantage was a curvaceous blue-haired female whose aura immediately telegraphed her as the current 'owner' of their son's mental faculties. Kasumi wanted to start hating the telepathic slave-mistress instantly, but the interaction of the strange aura with her son's gave her sudden pause. The creature's aura should have been smothering Tsukune's to the point of near opacity, but the control she was exerting was, from the energy Kasumi could see, gentle, almost doting. There was no hostility or ill intent in the mental connection between the succubus and the boy; the worst that she could see was a distinct possessiveness toward her hatch-ling, almost like that of a mated pair...

_**Oh no! Do you **_**see**_** the way she's thinking about our Tsukune?**_ she thought to her mate.

Kouji right away noticed the surge of anxiety from his mate, and the auras that prompted it. Despite a small primal surge of paternal pride in his offspring (which he very wisely kept hidden from Kasumi), he managed to maintain a dispassionate emotional tone as he sent to her, _**Calm down; going to pieces now will do more harm than good. Tomorrow, after he's free of the mental control and out of danger; then you can panic.**_

"Mom! Dad!" Tsukune's voice called out even before they had fully entered the room. As Kasumi ran to the bed, the females moved politely off to the sides of the room, giving his parents unimpeded access to their son.

"We're so sorry, Tsu-kun!" Kasumi blurted as she snatched up her son's hand. "If we had any idea we were sending you into this kind of place..."

"Mom..." Tsukune started, while she continued to ramble out apologies. "Mother!" Finally, he got her attention. "You couldn't have known. _Nobody_ could have known; they _do_ keep the true nature of this place a secret."

"But..."

"In a way, it was the perfect place for me to attend high school. All the students here are non-humans, learning to blend with and live in human society after they complete their education. If I knew this place existed, I would have _begged_ to be enrolled here openly."

Kouji chuckled softly. "He's got you there, honey. If we'd known ..."

"But..._monsters_?" Kasumi interrupted dramatically. "How could I sleep at night knowing my child is attending school with ogres, or werewolves, or bloodthirsty _vampires_, even?"

Moka flushed, making a small "_eep"_ sound, as the other girls fought to suppress an outbreak of giggles. Kasumi paused, and looked at the entourage of females as she sensed the shift in mood. Finally focusing on Moka, she gasped as she detected the vampire's powerful aura suppressed under some kind of containment.

"It's not like I drink _that_ much," Moka said in a small voice, as she shifted her gaze to the floor.

Kouji moved to support his mate as she staggered unsteadily, but recovered from her swoon. Barely suppressed mirth was evident in his voice as he said, "Perhaps you should introduce us to your friends, Tsu-kun, and save your mother any further unpleasant revelations."

Tsukune gave his father a small smile and nodded. "I guess she's already figured out one of my Youkai friends. This is Akashiya Moka, the first friend I made here at Youkai; a very sweet girl, who also happens to be a vampire."

Moka bowed low, "It's an honor to meet my first true friend's parents."

"Sendo Yukari, age eleven. I'm a witch, and much more intelligent and mature than my physical age and appearance would imply." Yukari piped in eagerly, with a pointed sidewise glance at Tsukune.

Tsukune flushed briefly, and quickly nodded to Mizore, "And this is Shirayuki Mizore. We formally met only two weeks ago, but I count her as a friend. She's a _yuki-onna_." Mizore simply nodded stoically as she shifted her ever-present lollipop.

"And finally," Tsukune continued, "this is Kurono Kurumu." He locked his gaze with Kurumu's and continued in a slightly more assertive tone, "My _girlfriend_, and a succubus. She's become very special to me."

Kurumu's heart fluttered at Tsukune's acknowledgment as she bowed low to his parents. "I'm working very hard to be worthy of your son's affection, Aono-sama," she said demurely, glancing up at Kasumi. "I expect you wish to have some time alone with your son, so we girls will excuse ourselves." Yukari opened her mouth to protest, but Moka and Kurumu's firm grips on her shoulders aborted her protests, and the girls filed out quietly, bowing to Tsukune's parents again as they left.

As soon as they were alone, Kouji cocked an amused eyebrow at his hatch-ling, "Girlfriend?" he asked. "Are you certain that you haven't somehow misunderstood local pair-bonding customs?"

"Trust me," Tsukune said, "there's not much room for interpretation where a succubus is involved. As a species, they're very...forward and uninhibited with their emotions. On a scale of emotional expressiveness, you'd place them on the opposite end of the spectrum from us, with humans in the middle. It's...stimulating, to say the least."

"But," Kasumi interrupted, "to stay _here_ on this chilly, backward, mud-ball? That can't be what you _really_ want, can it?"

"I can't know for sure until I'm my own sentient again. I'm not even going to weigh my options until after the procedure. I _am_ sure of the feelings I experienced and shared with her, and I'm equally sure that I _won't_ be abandoning them lightly." Tsukune sighed in resignation. "I wish I could just share them with you and make you understand."

"The ship's surgeon said no contact until the neural clamps are implanted. He was quite firm," Kouji said. "Why don't you just tell us about your experiences here? That's a start, at least."

"Alright. I figured out pretty quickly that this wasn't just another private high school..."

xxxXXXxxx

"I'm essentially making this up as I go along," 'Ssu admitted to the four female monsters she had sequestered in the Astronomy Club's meeting room. "All of our regulations and standing orders about Earth apply only to the human population. Your presence and involvement was not anticipated as a factor in this rescue mission."

The alien psychologist had been attempting to explain the dilemma that their knowledge of Tsukune's true nature presented.

"In a perfect universe," she continued, "even after being revealed to you all, we would simply scoop up our castaway, and disperse an aerosol neurotoxin within the dome, erasing the last three days of every sentient beings memories. We would have our people and you would all wake up missing a few days of memories, but with no specific knowledge of aliens, or spacecraft, or invading lizards. If you four could be disposed of, that option is open to us even now…"

"Wait!" Moka interrupted. "'Disposed of?' You mean killed, don't you? How could civilized beings even consider such a thing?"

"Says the vampire, who survives on the blood of living beings," Kurumu quipped wryly. "She does have a point, however," she continued. "How _does_ a civilized species justify the murder of four intelligent beings? And what _is_ stopping you from 'disposing' of us?"

'Ssu opened her mouth to answer, but was interrupted yet again.

"It's me, isn't it?" Yukari asked quietly. "Your laws don't protect the monsters, but I'm technically a human, so I can't be harmed. Is that it?"

'Ssu nodded. "You are indistinguishable from the humans; at least, according to every standard diagnostic we can apply. It would therefore be pointless to dispose of _any_ of you, if we can't contain the knowledge by eliminating _all_ of you. Moreover, yes, I believe that the sacrifice of one or more sentient beings can be justified by certain conditions. If I believed your knowledge of us to be an imminent threat to either the humans on this planet, or to the Commonwealth itself, your bodies would already be assuming ambient temperature.

"In placing this planet under quarantine, we have made a pledge to allow its natives to continue their development unmolested by any of our member worlds. If we revealed ourselves and 'guided' Earth to a more advanced civilization, it would emerge from the process as a straightforward copy of the typical Commonwealth world. In a universe where unlimited energy is ours for the extraction, and therefore near-unlimited resources abound, there exists one, and only one extremely rare and precious commodity in the galaxy."

"Diversity," Yukari again interjected. "You keep underdeveloped planets isolated for as long as possible, so they can contribute novel new ideas, and ways of thinking to the Commonwealth, once contact is unavoidable."

"In that regard, this planet and its barbaric, fractious humans represent the most valuable resource in the explored galaxy; Earth is one of the most uniquely diverse planets we've discovered in centuries. Our history shows that without the constant input of new attitudes, ways of thinking, or cultural challenges; a civilization like the Commonwealth stagnates and dies in a few short centuries. To preserve Earth and its humans for the good of the Commonwealth; yes, I would murder many sentient beings."

"So," asked Moka, "why are we here, discussing this? Are we waiting for something?"

"Your Chairman is currently in talks with our people. Whether he realizes it or not, he is negotiating the fate of all monster species on Earth. If we can teach you monsters how to add to the diversity of human culture without destroying it, you become as valuable as the humans are, and multiply the significance of this planet many times. If not, and it is decided you are a threat to human civilization, and cannot be a peaceable contributor …" 'Ssu paused. "The value of Earth _as it is_ will be enough to salve the cultural guilt of committing global genocide on a secondary group of species."

"While we wait for the politicians and generals to decide your fate, you should relate to me, in detail, how you discovered Tsukune's true nature, and convince me of your ability to conceal what you know. Further, I need to be able to assess how much cultural damage the castaway may have done, how much contamination he'll leave. His destiny, yours, and all monster kind's are entwined here."

'Ssu looked pointedly at all four of the Earthlings in turn. "Females, the floor is yours."

xxxXXXxxx

Kouji and Kasumi kept a silent vigil on the unconscious form of their child, waiting for his first signs of consciousness. The infirmary staff had provided a pair of comfortable chairs for them, and a single table lamp in the corner provided a soft, diffuse glow that lit the room dimly, but adequately enough to avoid stubbed toes or collisions with the furnishings. The Commonwealth medical team reported with confidence that the installation of the neural clamps was successful, and Tsukune was no longer a danger to himself or others. Further regenerative therapy would be required, along with comprehensive study of the premature telepathic maturation and the energy that caused it; but for now, their son was safe and healthy.

As they watched their sleeping son, a telepathic discussion echoed through the ether.

_**They can't be serious about allowing him to stay, mem-wipe or not! This is a quarantine planet!**_ Kasumi fumed mentally to her mate.

_**They certainly seem to be taking his position seriously**_, Kouji replied. _**There's a very delicate balance between the right to individual self-determination, and the legal requirements of the planetary quarantine. We may have to…**_

_**It is not that complicated, my mate**_, she interrupted. _**He's our child, and I do not intend to give him up to this wilderness. Have the Marines stun him, and the doctor can keep him sedated until we arrive at Home. He'll forget about that freakishly lumpy female and these so-called feelings soon enough after he's Home and back in his own skin.**_

_**Now, you're being irrational. We are not stunning or sedating our hatchling… **_

A soft knock at the door broke the silence of the room. Tsukune's parents looked up as the door opened partway, and the blue-haired, telepathic female poked her head tentatively into the room.

"Is he still out?" Kurumu asked.

Kasumi suppressed a surge of loathing for her son's mental slave-mistress, and answered levelly, "He'll be sleeping for a few hours, yet. Why don't you come back then?"

Kurumu swallowed nervously, not needing telepathic prowess to feel Kasumi's disdain. "They said he's safe, and I can release him any time," she said. "I'd like to do it while he's asleep. It'll be less disorienting and traumatic if I do it now, than while he's awake. He'll have a short kind of a withdrawal period, and I'd rather he just sleeps through it." Kurumu looked earnestly into Kasumi's eyes, as if offering her thoughts for verification.

Kouji squeezed his mates hand reassuringly, and said, "Go right ahead. Do you need privacy? We'd rather not leave his side for any reason until he wakes."

"No," Kurumu shook her head. "Just be prepared for the energies you might sense," she continued as she walked carefully to Tsukune's bed and clasped his hand, intertwining her fingers with his. As she placed her other hand on Tsukune's forehead, she leaned close, allowing her eyes to close while she focused on her Charm and the mental link between them. As Kurumu's aura slowly grew in strength and purpose, her psychic energy permeated the room like steam from a too-hot shower. Kasumi and Kouji absently joined their own hands, pressing close to each other as their perception of Kurumu's feelings for Tsukune washed over them like a wave of physical heat. Finally, they felt the release of their child from the Charm, and the subconscious distress it caused him, and in a final maelstrom of emotional and psychic energy, as Kurumu withdrew her mental connection completely, another surge of her feelings for their child rolled over the alien couple.

Neither of Tsukune's parents said a word as Kurumu kissed him gently on the forehead, and walked quietly out of the room. The couple simply stared, rapt, at the sleeping form of their hatchling, barely able to process the emotions they just experienced. Kouji looked down at Kasumi, who was blushing furiously, and still unable to speak, telepathically or otherwise.

_**We can't try to take **_**that**_** away from him. It **_**must**_** be his choice**__**, alone**_, Kouji thought to his mate.

Still blushing, Kasumi managed a weak nod, as she continued to stare her slumbering child.

xxxXXXxxx

Continued…

xxxXXXxxx

Omake:  
Sneak Preview of "Best Served Cold…", a new Rosario + Vampire fanfic in early planning.

xxxXXXxxx

Tsukune focused intently on Miss Nekonome's presentation of the rules of Youkai Academy, knowing all too well that to react abnormally now could cost him his very life.

_One week ago…_

"_There's no such place! It's a myth!" blurted fifteen-year-old Tsukune Aono._

_The teen was kneeling at the front of an almost deserted, dimly lit dojo facing four elderly men. He was dressed in a deep gray, almost black gi. The senior of the four elders, dressed in the formal garb of a Shinto priest replied, "It is no myth. The Monster Academy is real, and you have been selected to attend as our eyes and ears for the semester."_

_Another of the men, this one dressed as a Muslim imam, interjected. "You are the only Hunter with the skills to survive this mission, at an age where you can pass for a student there. You must master your fear."_

_Tsukune lowered his head, and said, "You misunderstand, Master. It's not that I fear going there. I don't fear losing my life; my life ended the night my parents died under the fangs of the Shuzen vampire. I was surprised to learn the myth of Youkai is actually true, and I'm disappointed to be interrupting my search for Shuzen."_

_The youngest of the four elders, a Jesuit priest, spoke. "Your service to the Order of Hunters has been exemplary, and your single-minded determination to master your training and lessons has enabled you to advance to the level you have; thus, you are our only possible hope of gathering the intelligence we need to strike a decisive blow against the monsters in their own world. I tell you this in the strictest confidence, so you can be fully focused on your task at Youkai." He paused briefly. "One of the line of Shuzen is rumored to be among the freshman class at Youkai this semester."_

_Tsukune's head snapped up to look at the Jesuit. His eyes hardened, becoming like black stones in a shallow pool._

"_Not for very long, Father."_


	22. Strange New Life

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author of this story. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any previously copyrighted material. No copyright infringement is intended.

Stranger In A Strange World  
Strange New Life

"_Every ____new beginning__ comes from some other beginning's end.__"  
~ Seneca_

xxxXXXxxx

Tsukune's return to consciousness was rapid; almost abrupt. Blinking the fog from his eyes, he surveyed the now-familiar infirmary room with a nagging sense of loss, and a barely-tangible feeling that a part of him was missing. As his eyes finally focused on his parents, his father thumbed the intercom beside the bed.

"Doctor, he's awake," Kouji spoke into the box, before turning to his hatch-ling. "So, how do you feel?" he asked expectantly.

Tsukune rubbed his temples, as if feeling for something that wasn't there. "She's gone, isn't she?" The disappointment in his voice was palpable.

"She released you while you were still out; something about reducing the disorientation. How does it feel?"

Tsukune thought for a moment, then sighed. "Empty."

Kasumi opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted by the arrival of the Commonwealth neurologist who had accompanied them to the surface, and performed Tsukune's implant procedure.

"Ah. Fully conscious, are we?" he asked. Tsukune nodded his reply as the doctor produced a medical scanner from one of the many pockets of a Fleet flight suit. "Any pain, or vertigo?" he asked as he adjusted the device and started a scan of Tsukune's head.

"No pain; just..." Tsukune hesitated, then met the doctor's gaze. "Is it abnormal to miss being psychically dominated? Shouldn't I be feeling liberated?"

The doctor cocked his head to one side in curiosity. "Yes, actually, it is. Of course, I've not seen anything quite like what we observed during your procedure. There was a strong psycho-emotional component to the connection. A physician of another, more expressive species could describe it better, but my own experience with such effusive brain activity is limited. Anything else?"

"Good," he continued when Tsukune shook his head. "Your suppressive implants are set, and there's no sign of rejection. You'll remain a fully functional telepathic receiver, but we've sharply curtailed any ability to project mental energies. At best, you'll be able to communicate telepathically as you did before, but you'll have no ability to suggest or exert any influence on a sentient mind. As your brain continues to mature, it will progressively override the implants, but only to the degree that your level of control has developed. Eventually, you will become fully functional again, perhaps a little behind the curve of what would have been your normal development. Any questions?"

"You might have heard..." Tsukune started.

"That you might opt to stay on this planet?" the doctor finished for him. "While I cannot fathom why you would choose to, I produced the implants for your _current_ genome. No further intervention would be required. When you return Home, and are reverted to your natural form, the necessary adjustments can be made during the geno-forming process." He paused briefly, and as if satisfied there were no further questions, departed with a perfunctory "Good day," over his shoulder.

xxxXXXxxx

'Ssu frowned as she regarded her willful castaway and his parents. The female monsters were allowed a brief visit with the patient, then were firmly dismissed from the room while she talked some sense to the young man. Surprisingly, the parents offered no assistance at all.

"He's your child; shouldn't you be encouraging him to be sensible about this?" she hissed. A quick calculation of the orbital period of the planet revealed Tsukune to have reached the Age of Decision among his people while marooned here. Further, he'd been a _de facto_ member of the backwards human civilization for more than ten local orbits, so it was his right to assume citizenship of his new home, had there been an administrative mechanism to do so. It was all very frustrating to the normally professional and level-headed reptile.

_Could it be that these foolish emotions are somehow communicable?_ She shuddered at the fleeting thought.

"We won't interfere in his decision," said Kouji. "The doctor's certified him to be free of external influence; so get on with it and brief him on the options."

"You have two: return with us, and resume your life among the Commonwealth in your natural form; or stay, and be forever removed from the Commonwealth. Your genome exists now only as a sizable record in a Commonwealth database; it will be deleted, and your racial heritage along with it. You will become, for all practical purposes, a human. Your knowledge and memories still pose a threat to this planet's quarantine; they will be deleted. You will have only knowledge of the local dialect, and your natural intelligence as survival tools. You will be removed from this place, and deposited in a remote location where it is probable you will be discovered and sheltered by the local populace, the victim of an apparent terrestrial automobile accident with permanent retrograde amnesia. If you are so enamored of this so-called civilization that you will abandon your home and species, you will be placed at its mercy. The only source of support you will enjoy will be that which they would offer one of their own most helpless members. Your friends, if they wish to offer aid and support, will first face the challenge of finding you, then convincing you that they are, in fact, your friends; you will not remember them. They must willingly agree never to reveal your previous nature and origins to you."

Tsukune nodded as each condition was pronounced like a sentence upon a convicted criminal. He avoided eye contact with his parents, not needing to see their expressions to feel their growing concern.

_If I stay, I won't remember Kurumu, or how I feel about her_, he thought morosely. _If I go, I'll remember my feelings, but never be able to feel them again._

'Ssu paused, about to ask if he understood his options, when Tsukune finally spoke.

"Enough. I've made my decision."

xxxXXXxxx

The mood in the Astronomy Club room was somber, as Kurumu, Moka, Mizore and Yukari waited for their alien friend to make the most important decision of his young life. Kurumu's nerves were stretched almost to the limit. She sat silently at a desk with her hands clasped in front of her, unable to keep them from shaking when they weren't holding on to something. With her Charm connection severed, she couldn't feel any of Tsukune's mood or emotions, and void was like a physical pain in her chest. Soon, she would be the most fortunate Succubus in history, and be united with a Destined One selected from across the galaxy for her; or she would be the most unfortunate, having found her Destined One, only to have him ripped away and separated by sixty-five light-years of empty space. With a discipline utterly foreign to a Succubus' normal psyche, she resolved that she would abide by his decision, and not beg, or plead for him to stay. She would _not_ ask her love to abandon all that he was or could be for her happiness. Kurumu winced visibly when the door opened to admit the lizard, 'Ssu, two of the alien soldiers, and her Tsukune.

"He has made his decision," said the psychologist without emotion.

Kurumu stood, trembling, as Tsukune walked up to face her. She could feel his hands shaking, as well, as he took her face in his hands, moved in to kiss her softly, but lingeringly, on the lips.

"Kurumu, I've got to go away..." he started after breaking off the kiss, and hesitated as he felt her heart sink into the abyss. "But just for a while."

"What?", Kurumu blurted, afraid to hope that she was hearing him correctly.

"They're going to take my memories for this, but I'm staying. I'll be dropped somewhere far from here, like an amnesiac accident victim. _Come and find me_. If I'm really your Destined One, you can't _not_ find me again, and show me the feelings we've shared, right? If you truly believe we're fated to be together, then I'll be out there, waiting for you, even if I don't know who or what I'm waiting for." Tsukune turned to 'Ssu. "I'd rather temporarily give up the memory of these feelings, and have the chance of discovering them again, than abandon them, and Kurumu, forever. Do what you have to do."

Kurumu clenched him in a fierce embrace, kissing him again, this time with the fervor of all her built-up anxiety and fear converted into passion. Tsukune returned the kiss as best he could, but he was, after all, only human. She only released him when she felt a soft pop from his spine.

"I'll find you," she promised in a hoarse whisper, tears of joy welling up in her eyes. "If I have to fly to the South Pole on my own wings, I'll find you and make you mine again!"

"Until then..." Tsukune started, but his voice caught, and he could only kiss her again, bathed in the sensation of her emotions.

'Ssu, nonplussed by her own perceptions of the emotions in the room, shook herself slightly and motioned to the Marines. The two soldiers took up flanking positions on either side of Tsukune.

"Sergeant, take the castaway into custody. He is to be isolated until the memory deletion is complete."

The Marines clasped his arms firmly, but not painfully so, and pulled him away from Kurumu's embrace. They only had time to turn toward the door, when it opened, and the Commander, Contact Specialist, and Chairman strode in. Regarding the Marines, the Commander spoke softly, but authoritatively.

"That," he said, "will not be necessary."

xxxXXXxxx

_One week later…_

The day started out dark and overcast, and Kurumu anticipated a break from stargazing that night. As the day marched on past lunchtime, however, the sky cleared and the afternoon was bright and sunny.

_More work_, she thought in resignation as the dismissal bell chimed, and she descended the stairs to dusty old library. The events of the past week were a whirlwind of partially remembered highlights, and stark memories of being busier than any high school student in history. At least, it seemed that way.

An hour later, Kurumu emerged from the library with an armload of dusty tomes, some apparently centuries old, and started to trudge up the stairs to the administrative offices. Nodding to the Chairman's assistant, she walked up to the door of a small side office and tapped on it with the toe of her shoe. Next to the door, a small engraved placard proclaimed it to be the office of:

_Commonwealth Diplomatic Service  
Consular Attaché, SSI-45961-3 (Terra)_

Below that, a slightly smaller sign,

_Research Assistant  
Terran Sapient Documentation Project_

The door opened, revealing Tsukune, dressed not in his Youkai green sport jacket, but a gray and red military-style tunic, bearing a patch depicting the planet Earth, and the insignia of the Commonwealth Diplomatic Corps on the shoulders. Without a word, he took the books from Kurumu, placing them on an already overloaded desk as she closed the door behind her. In the past week, Kurumu had become Doctor Saito's _de facto_ research assistant, digging up source material for Saito's expanded database of Earthly life forms.

"More books for the Doc?" he asked as he turned back to Kurumu, only to be wrapped in a firm hug and kissed soundly on the lips. After returning the kiss for a few seconds, he backed up slightly, looking bewildered.

"Um…who are you again?" he asked seriously, before breaking into an impish grin.

"Let me jog your memory, my comedic Destined One," Kurumu said as she kissed him again, this time with the ardor only a Succubus could muster.

"Alright! I surrender!" he laughed as she finally broke the kiss. "Did you have a good day in classes?" he asked as he removed the tunic.

"Actually, not bad," she replied. "It seems our connection was more than just emotional. My marks are up by at least ten points over the last week." Kurumu watched as he hung up his "office" jacket. "I'll never get used to that," she said, pointing at the empty shoulder holster that was concealed under the tunic.

"A necessary evil, I guess," Tsukune shrugged as he retrieved a small, angular pistol from a dimensional portal safe set in the wall. "With the implants, I can't defend myself the way I used to." After checking the charge and the safety, he holstered the weapon and reached for his green school jacket. "Besides, even after all the negotiations and agreements, I'm still a human at Youkai. It's not like I don't have enemies."

"I still say Moka and I could defend you, if you needed it."

"There's also protocol to consider, Ku-chan. Since we negotiated my right to carry it; I'm sort of obligated to do so."

Now dressed as a typical first-year student of Youkia Academy, Tsukune held out his arm to Kurumu.

"Shall we go stargazing?"

xxxXXXxxx

Kurumu and Tsukune enjoyed the walk to the Astronomy Club's hilltop in silence, basking in the contact of her arms around his. Despite the maelstrom of political and personal events of the past week, they managed to get a little "alone time" together. Kurumu was discovering the appeal of the mental and emotional connection they shared, even as Tsukune was slowly learning the joys of physical affection. (The sensitivity of human skin may not be ideal for proper reptilian sunbathing, he concluded, but it was not without its upside.) Kurumu even kept her previous promise to be patient with her Destined One; not once yet raping him, despite her innate urges. The day was rapidly waning to dusk as they reached the halfway point of their trek to meet the rest of the Astronomy Club. It was then that Tsukune felt a familiar presence.

"Ku-chan," he said in a warning tone. "Stay calm. Don't go crazy on me."

"What is it?" she asked suspiciously.

A familiar form stepped out of the trees. Tsukune felt Kurumu's youki building as she recognized the two pony tails, antiquated Western-style dress, and large wand.

"Calm down, Kurumu. She's not here to fight," he admonished.

The witch, Ruby stood for a moment in front of the couple, and without a word, knelt in front of Tsukune with her fists planted on the path.

"He's right. I only wish to thank Master Aono properly for freeing me. Allow me this, and I will leave," Ruby begged.

To her credit, Kurumu's talons only came out a centimeter or so as she suppressed her demonic rage. "Do you have any idea," she hissed, "what you nearly cost me?"

Ruby looked up at the Succubus, then to Tsukune, and her eyes widened as she saw in her own way the connection between them. Gasping, and planting her hands flat in front of her, Ruby bowed until her head touched the ground.

"Daughter of Lilith, I had no idea. Take what retribution you feel is yours."

"No!" Tsukune blurted. "The personality that did that is gone, wiped out like the lizard man." He turned to look directly into Kurumu's furious eyes. "There's nothing to be gained by punishing her. This is not the same witch."

Kurumu's aura hardened for an instant, then relaxed. "For my Destined One's sake, I accept your apology. Now go."

"I will not." Ruby raised her head in defiance. "I swear to you that I will repay my debt to you. I will remain here, at Youkai until I've done so. Either of you can ask any favor, any boon, at any time and it is yours; even if I must spend the rest of my mortal life here."

While Kurumu gaped in astonishment, Tsukune groaned inwardly.

_This can't possibly make my life more complicated, can it?_

End.


End file.
